Band:	Darkthrone
Album:	Frostland Tapes
Style:	Black metal, Death metal
Release date:	June 23, 2008
A review by:	Jeff

Disc I
[Land Of Frost Demo 1988]
01. Land Of Frost
02. Winds Of Triton
03. Forest Of Darkness
04. Odyssey Of Freedom
05. Day Of The Dead
[A New Dimension Demo 1988]
06. Intro: Twilight Dimension
07. Snowfall
[Thulcandra Demo 1989]
08. Eon
09. Thulcandra
10. Archipelago
11. Soria Moria

Disc II
[Cromlech Demo 1989]
01. The Watchtower
02. Accumulation Of Generalization
03. Sempiternal Past / Presence View Sepulchrality
04. Iconoclasm Sweeps Cappadocia
[Live in Denmark 1990]
05. Cromlech
06. Sunrise Over Locus Mortis
07. Soulside Journey
08. Accumulation Of Generalization
09. Sempiternal Past / Presence View Sepulchrality
10. Iconoclasm Sweeps Cappadocia
11. Neptune Towers

Disc III [Goatlord - Rare Instrumental Version 1991]
01. Rex
02. Pure Demoniac Blessing
03. (The) Grimness Of Which Shepherds Mourn
04. Sadomasochistic Rites
05. As Desertshadows
06. In His Lovely Kingdom
07. Black Daimon
08. Toward(s) The Thornfields
09. (Birth Of Evil) Virgin Sin
10. Green Cave Float
11. A Blaze In The Northern Sky
12. Fenriz Drum Solo

I you're a fan of Darkthrone and cannot find their first demos then maybe "Frostland Tapes" will be a good replacement for you. Actually, this nice digipack is a compilation of the four demos of the Norwegian cult band including the first instrumental version of Goatlord plus a short live show recorded in Denmark in 1990. It's of course not so new and not perfectly recorded but this part of Metal history must be discovered in my opinion and I think that the fans of the band will find something interesting for them here.

Back in 1988-1991, Darkthrone was not the most technical band on Earth. Of course, if you just compare them to the Metal monsters of these years it's obvious that the first demos of the Norwegian band sound really amateurish but obviously something good and promising was already perceptible in the music of the band. The anger and the really dark atmosphere of this crossover between dark Thrash and Death Metal was undeniably and logically the premise of the Black Metal that we all know today. I cannot say that these demos are perfect but we already have some little jewels like "Snowfall" and despite the crappy sound of the recordings, this is a good triple CD, a good way to discover Darkthrone during its Jurassic period.

Of course the problem with a release like this one is that it contains demos and demos recorded at the end of the 80's simply have, in general, terrible sound. No surprises here, 90% of the time the recording of the songs is simply terrible but the sound of Darkthrone has never been the best anyway and with time I think that you'll be able to listen to this demo without a lot of problem. Even if it's not really well recorded it's still ok and anyway the whole box (which also features a written interview of Fenriz and Nocturno) is really nice. Of course it's always better to buy the original demos of a band (good luck here?) but if you like Darkthrone I'm sure that you'll like this release. It's worth the price!

"Frostland Tapes" is a good way to discover the beginning of Darkthrone; the songs are a bit simplistic, right, but there is, of course, something nice behind all these compositions. If you're looking for old stuff have a look on this box, it can be a good buy in my opinion and finally you'll be able to know all that you want to know about your favorite band. "Frostland Tapes" is a must for the fans of Darkthrone.