Band:	Darkthrone
Album:	Sardonic Wrath
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	September 06, 2004
A review by:	Azhidahak

01. Order Of The Ominous
02. Information Wants To Be Syndicated
03. Sjakk Matt Jesu Krist
04. Straightening Sharks In Heaven
05. Alle Gegen Alle
06. Mann Tanker Sitt
07. Sacrificing To The God Of Doubt
08. Hate Is The Law
09. Rawness Obsolete

I remember I did an interview with fenriz for not so long ago, and then I remember fenriz said the following as an answer to one of the questions:

"If people START playing primitive, they almost always MUST explore. We explored FIRST, THEN decided to play primitive. "

And that is exactly what darkthrone is doing now; they are playing raw, primitive black metal. Each album follows pretty much the same formula. Some people might find this boring that a band don't do anything new and find it very negative that a band doesn't progress and it's like they are doing the same thing over and over again. But, I'm sure that most darkthrone fans don't have any problem with this at all, they are pleased with the primitive and raw style of black metal that darkthrone plays and I'm sure most of them don't even want darkthrone to progress and they are afraid that if darkthrone starts experimenting too much then they would follow the footsteps of some bands like Dimmu Borgir, and for "trOO" black metal fans that would be a disaster. So they prefer darkthrone to stay the same old darkthrone that they always loved and dakthrone is doing nothing but keeping their fans happy (I suppose).

There is one main difference between this album and their older albums though. Sardonic Wrath seems to have lost some of the energy and speed that darkthrone used to have. Most songs are not as fast as darkthrone used to be and they are somehow, more mid-tempo paced. Besides that there is no other big difference, the riffs, the "grim" atmosphere, and the nice "clean" drumming of fenriz are all still there.

If you like the previous works of darkthrone and wouldn't mind hearing something that is pretty much in the same vein (though somehow slower), then this is the album for you.