Darkthrone

Band: Darkthrone
Genre: Black Metal
Album: "Under a Funeral Moon"
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn-nIv6m45U

While on black metal, I thought I should put up another essential by the one and only Darkthrone.  Although there's a lot of debate about it, most metalheads would consider them to have three masterpieces in a row:  "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" (1992), "Under a Funeral Moon" (1993), and "Transilvanian Hunger" (1994), all back to back with a year between each release.  The album I've chosen is obviously "Under a Funeral Moon," and this is only because I feel like "Under a Funeral Moon" is Darkthrone's peak in black metal.

"Under..." is truly an amazing listen for anyone who enjoys black metal, or even any metalhead in general.  Being one of the first in the 2nd wave (in fact influencing a lot of other 2nd wave bands), it reaches out to some of the basic elements of black metal that many bands seem to have forgotten nowadays.  There are lots of rich influences from Bathory's "Under the Sign of the Black Mark" (I'm not sure if it was intended for the titles to have such similarities; I might have to check up on that...), where they took very sharp, cutting guitar tones that sound sort of like they're buzzing.  The particular melodies played by the guitars also show similarities with many of Bathory's, as they still have a lot of epic vibe in them (most likely from Bathory's "viking" metal elements).  Also, the vocals definitely resemble Quorthon's (vocalist of Bathory, who also happens to play all the instruments), which are basically the typical black metal vocals that we have all heard of.

However, Darkthrone have definitely built much more on the music which Bathory has spawned (otherwise Darkthrone wouldn't be as important, duh!).  One thing I've noticed in the music is that the drums have been relocated in the texture of the music, so to speak, to the background.  Although the drums still perform very speedy rhythm for the music, they are no longer the same thrash metal drums that would keep beating at a thousand bpm as they do in Bathory's music.  With this difference, Darkthrone took the music towards a different direction: they expanded more on simple-almost minimalistic-melodies which enriched the music with grim, evil atmospheres.    From the complex "epicness" which Bathory had created so long ago, Darkthrone achieved an epic, apocalyptic evil atmosphere.

To wrap it up, I'll end this review by saying that this album has some of the most well-written songs in all of black metal;  in fact, every single track will impress the listener.  And once again, keep an open mind if you're new to black metal, because most likely you will eventually grow into the music (since it's not always the most aesthetically pleasing music for many people).