Sounded a tad like early Celtic Frost but didn't hold my attention until the end. I find this style too meandering for Darkthrone. Not bad, not impressive either.

Agreed.

Good song. It sounded more spirited than many of their later songs. I hope this album can compete with Old Star. That's clearly the best album that they've done lately. I really like that one.

I've given it a few spins now and so far enjoyed most of it.Some good,even great riffs to be had along with not so annoying clean vocals from Fenriz.I keep finding myself getting into it big time then it slows down again into a dirgy doomy riff (some good,others not so much) so still a fair bit to process at this point.
Highlights are Eon 3 and Black Dawn Affiliation (love the vocal at the end of that one) and I've decided I'm not even going to bother trying to decipher the lyrics on this one as i will end up scratching my head on some lost and forgotten golden shore on planet Pluto.Or something.

I think one thing that draws me to later Darkthrone is this seems like the polar opposite of the modern hyper clean, tempo adjusted, pitch corrected, Andy Sneap modern metal album sound. Should that be an issue? Probably not, but this feels a bit more natural than so much of the plastic artificial sounding albums I hear. This sounds more real. Granted that wouldn't matter much if I didn't like the music, but I do.

No surprises here: it's fucking great.


The back cover of the album says "No metronome since 1987". I think both styles have their place, Sneap did a fantastic job on Judas Priest's last two, but it's true that I wouldn't want that sound on a Darkthrone album.

Really loved this i enjoyed pretty much every song on it riffs were very good enjoyed the vocals quite a bit my favorite song is definitely black dawn affiliation or the bird people of nordland
the beginning of the heavy hand really reminds me of in the hordes of nebulah which is my favorite darkthrone song

Wrapping up my first listen and this is another solid “will probably get 77% on the review score average” album.

I like raw, unpolished metal as much as the next guy, but it feels like Darkthrone are recording every single riff they come up with these days.

Anyone get one of the defective vinyl copies?

Yep,i'm a winner.Side B has an echo effect on the drums.Mine was a pre order on plain black vinyl and now in the process of organising a replacement.
Sent Burning Shed an email but not heard back yet.

Are all copies on black vinyl affected? I pre-ordered mine too but I didn’t hear anything unusual when I listened to it.

They just said a small amount of early presses and never specified any colour varients.If Side B sounds good to your ears then sounds like you got a good one.

Is it something that is very clearly a problem? I need to sit down and listen to mine, but is it something that is very plain to hear?

It is now that i know it's there and went looking for it if that makes sense.My first 2 listens were on youtube music and when i spun the record at home i thought it was a turntable problem.
The proper track is front and centre and you can hear a second drum track faintly in the background out of time inbetween the guitars.Even more noticeable on headphones.

I gave it a quick spin, and there is a bit of echo effect on the vocals, but that is on the YT version as well. I need to put some headphones on and see what I can hear before sending it back to Amazon.

In the first listening , good album better than Astral fortress imo

Yeah, that's where I am too. Upon first listen at least. But for folks who really enjoy that kind of metal, it should be right up their alley.

He sure does! I like that about `em!

Very much agree!!!

now that's how to do a cheap video without it looking like shit! Nice! Much better than the recent Accept vids I just watched.

Here's a a rip of what seems to be the faulty version. And yes, it is very noticeable and grating, since the echoed drums are out of sync with the 'real' ones. It seems that the guitars are echoed too, but it's not that noticeable as with the drums.

Yeah listening to it sober today, I gave it a spin over the weekend but too much gin must have thrown my hearing off, and I can hear those off time drum hits on the one channel. I would send it back to Amazon but no idea if I'll get another defective one. Peaceville says they will let everyone know what to do, but I have a feeling that will mean me spending more money to get what I already paid for.

Honestly I am really happy with this album, every tune is excellent. Feels like they spent more time constructing the songs rather than throwing everything at the wall just to see what sticks. It feels like darkthrone in the best of ways, some more Frost in the riffs… very satisfied.

That is absolutely fine, and the reason i check out every single Darkthrone release.

Vomitor as well. Although i think they are one of the very best in their style.

Just keep it, this will be pricy collectors item one day

Yeah, but they still have not said what they are going to do. If I have to ship this back I'll just keep it.

How does such a massive mistake even happen? Did the label skip a test press AND skip QA after production? I guess Darkthrone's MO has always been Quantity Over Quality, though, so shortcuts that result in mistakes aren't exactly surprising.

Fenriz pressed them himself in his apartment.

I tried this thing, but Fenriz voice is such a turn off, I respect Darkthrone but I can't stand the vocals.

I've always said that if Fenriz reviewed Darkthrone, he would roast the shit out of them. He mocks other bands for the exact things he does on his own records.

Bah they continue to be like a cover band, maximum respect but something more courageous would be appreciated at least by me…

Does anyone really ask for courageous? Most people I see who are really vocal seem to want them to make another album like the Blaze through TH.

If you feel like having a headache, I'd recommend Coffin Storm. The cover artwork is a bit odd though. I would have preferred a picture of Fenriz wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a sock puppet in a Pavarotti tour shirt.

Seriously, I don't mind his vocals but I'm not sure if he's serious or out for comic relief.

I don't think anyone seriously thinks/wants that, because it would suck donkey balls.
What most people wants (yes, there's a study from a well renowned Swiss institute), is for them to have some filter when writing songs and not release every drunken demo recording as a new album. And consider getting a vocalist.

I dunno, when I talk to people or read comments a lot are "they were great on the unholy trinity..."

Darkthrone is Darkthrone and they are going to do what they do. I think at this point expecting some big change is silly.

Thinking they were great on "the unholy trinity" doesn't mean you want them to try to recreate what they did 30 years ago. That magic and the people who made that music is gone.
Wanting them to be a bit more selective with what they release is a totally different thing.

Sounding cool as usual... all their stuff since Arctic Thunder or so is always in this grimy, Celtic Frost-y mode, and there's a lot of cool riffs even if not a lot of it is insanely memorable. Sometimes I get in the mood for this stuff just as a fan of lo-fi, unfiltered heavy music. I liked Eternal Hails quite a bit - barely remember Astral Fortress as I only heard it once. This one seems like maybe it's the most traditional 70s, early 80s one they've done. Like Black Sabbath and Celtic Frost blended into a stew. The vocals actually sound really cool. A nice weird grunt. Might not play this a ton but they do what they do well. I think I've said before that it'd be nice if they took more time on these, and maybe - but that said, it's kind of cool when bands just put out stuff for the hell of it. I can admire the work ethic.

Last song has some cool industrial sounding stuff... really nice, groovy guitars leading up to that too. This is a really good one actually.

Another update from Peaceville this morning saying thanks for your patience as they're still working on it.
This must be a total nightmare for the label in sorting all this shit out with replacements and repressing,reposting etc.
Kinda stuck in limbo here with a record i don't want to play when i want to get into it more on the turntable so i think i'll pick up the cd next week while I'm waiting.

If so, it's slightly-less-than-instant karma for Peaceville. They (re-)release way too much stuff.


What, a clicky bass drum sound?