Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky review
| Band: | Darkthrone |
| Album: | A Blaze In The Northern Sky |
| Style: | Black metal |
| Release date: | February 26, 1992 |
| Guest review by: | Vikingocalypse; |
01. Kathaarian Life Code
02. In The Shadow Of The Horns
03. Paragon Belial
04. Where Cold Winds Blow
05. A Blaze In The Northern Sky
06. The Pagan Winter
What a change eh? From clean faces and jeans to all black and corpse paint. For A Blaze In The Northern Sky, Euronymous (who this album is dedicated to) worked with Darkthrone, getting them to make black metal. The sound of A Blaze In The Northern Sky is responsible for creating Darkthrone's legacy. It has been apparent on every album ever since.
Like typical black metal, the sound of A Blaze In The Northern Sky is frosting cold. The drums are merely there, same with the guitars and bass. The vocals are completely nocturnal. The production is quite raw, to nowadays standards, poor. However, the lack of production is really what makes DarkThrone's classic albums authentic. The lyrics are completely about paganism, occult, and of course, the northern hemisphere. Really well known tracks are "Kathaarian Life Code" and "In The Shadow Of The Horns". The first track, "Kathaarian Life Code", starts off with a nocturnal incantation that is replayed at the end of the last track, "The Pagan Winter", while closing the album.
It is justified to say that fans of Darkthrone's classic albums are divided in two. Fans of Mayhem intend to favor A Blaze In The Northern Sky, while fans of Burzum favor Transylvanian Hunger. Frankly, they're both important albums that individually played an essential role in Darkthrone's career. Ablaze In The Northern Sky is their black metal debut. Here, they played a sound that they are still playing (even though now it's mixed with punk) and are well respected for.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by Vikingocalypse; | 15.07.2009
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
Great little review  Very special album, along with Transilvanian Hunger, my fav from Darkthrone.
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| ColdasagravE Posts: 23  |
Nice review. The bit about what album Mayhem fans are partial to and what one the Burzum fans like was a cool touch. A Blaze In The Northern Sky is one of my favorite albums by Darkthorne, and coincidentally, I am a big fan of Mayhem.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Nice concise review.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Like I said about a hour ago "nice and concise review" BUT WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET THE FOLLOWING IDEA FROM? "Fans of Mayhem intend to favor A Blaze In The Northern Sky, while fans of Burzum favor Transylvanian Hunger." Did you do a survey? I am a fan of Mayhem and find Burzum's music mediocre at best but I like ABITNS and TH just as much.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 16.07.2009 at 03:21 he hired Rasmussen and Zogby to conduct a phone poll for him... absolutely stupid, baseless remark that really has no bearing on the review.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by [user id=21138] on 16.07.2009 at 03:50 Yes, so what? Still no proof that fans of Mayhem prefer the one and fans of Burzum the other.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
And i am a fan of the Cure and prefer "Under a Funeral Moon" to either... does this mean we can infer the legions of Fat Bob fans feel the same way? it's not "controversy", it's just baseless speculation.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by [user id=21138] on 16.07.2009 at 04:08 it IS speculation. how many fans have you asked? you have not asked me... unless you conducted a "scientific" poll with over 1,000 respondents from a random sampling spread over various geographical areas from various socio-economic backgrounds, it's speculation. (and even if you did do such, there is a margin of error.) but whatever. since the five guys in your local scene think this, it *MUST* be true, right?
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Hyvaarin Posts: 1487  |
Who the hell edited this review?
---- "Summoned By Words Never Spoken Before..."
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469  |
To be honest, I don't understand why people bother to write reviews on a metal forum. It's a loss of time, only an invitation to those who don't share your tastes to flame you. If I'm interested to check a band or album, all I need to do is to listen to the music by myself. I don't need to know the opinion of the metal community. Why should we bother for what the other metal fans can think of a band or album? Personally, I don't care for what the metal community in general believes. If it's great for me, fine. If it sucks for me, just too bad. I don't need to know if others agree with me or not. Anyway, I don't see any reason why I should try to get the approval of a community I consider is composed in a proportion of over 90% of retarded douchebags who believe they know everything better than others.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by Hyvaarin on 19.07.2009 at 05:32 i the hell did.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 19.07.2009 at 06:05 The reason to write reviews, imo, to the metal community on websites is to help give bands exposure. help people uncover new worthwhile shit to check out. The issue with reviews is too often they are not submitted for either relatively obscure stuff which should be brought to light - or new stuff (which MS staff tries to cover internally for 90 days after release) - but a huge chunk of guest reviews are written for popular past works which any vaguely knowledgeable metal fan is already familiar with and most likely owns. Though some folks just seek validation for their opinoins via reviews, which, depending upon how (in)flexible they are is a recipe for flame war.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by [user id=21138] on 16.07.2009 at 04:08 delayed response to your question as I missed it until now... I guess you're not really a Cure fan, otherwise that would be clear to you.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| Hyvaarin Posts: 1487 |
Written by BitterCOld on 19.07.2009 at 11:20 The review's second sentence isn't strictly a sentence. The t in the band's name isn't capitalised. Exactly how are the drums, guitars and bass "merely" there? Band names generally aren't italicised. Fans of Mayhem tend to favour this album, they don't intend to (if this point is even true). The album is not called Ablaze.... Just saying. Written by Lord_Regnier on 19.07.2009 at 06:05 Posting reviews isn't about winning popularity or making enemies. It's a very good way to discuss music and explain just what we like/dislike about it.
---- "Summoned By Words Never Spoken Before..."
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| SatyriconChick Posts: 248  |
Interesting review. I have to personally agree about the Mayhem/Burzum thing - I am a fan of Mayhem and not a fan of Burzum at all, and I definitely prefer Blaze... (and Under a Funeral Moon as well, for that matter) to Transilvanian Hunger. Anyhow, this is a classic album, with one of Darkthrone's greatest songs IMO in "In the Shadow of the Horns." Classic stuff! 
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by SatyriconChick on 04.01.2010 at 21:02 I also like ABITNS and UAFM a bit more than "Transylvanian Hunger". As for Burzum and Mayhem, I never liked them at all. When it comes to early 90s Norwegian BM, I think Darkthrone and Satyricon are much much better than Burzum and Mayhem.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466  |
I could never get into this album. If you ask me, both Transilvanian Hunger and Under a Funeral Moon kick it right in the balls. Funny thing, right now I prefer Burzum over Mayhem, but a month ago it was the other way around. Awesome stuff, both of them.
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| Oaken Hipster Posts: 1322  |
Simple, good stuff. A lot of the riffs sound the same though, because they all try to sound gr1m and kvlt. I prefer Transilvanian Hunger to it.
---- In that case, man is only air as well.
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| squidrick420 Posts: 187  |
I like both Burzum and Mayhem a ton, therefore i like A Blaze In The Northern Sky and Transilvanian Hunger quite a bit. Both are badass black metal albums if i do say so myself. Can't forget about Under A Freezing Moon though, that one is right up there on this list
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101  |
Written by [user id=159927] on 13.10.2016 at 15:57 Thank you.
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| 3rdWorld China was a neat Posts: 4367  |
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