Darkthrone - Sardonic Wrath

Sardonic Wrath is one of those mid-career Darkthrone records I always seem to look past, so I made the decision to add it to my Spotify in order to get a bit more circulation out of it. I seem to fall into the terrible habit of writing off everything released in between the flurry of early 90s black metal masterpieces and the massive return to form with the crust punk style in the mid 2000s. And yes, whilst it is true that some of the Darkthrone material from this middle-period can leave a lot to be desired, I don't believe that the same can be said for Sardonic Wrath, which is a surprisingly punishing affair of cold lo-fi black metal.

The extra commentary tracks packaged onto the end of this particular version of the release actually helped me get a better perspective on the Darkthrone recording process. Sardonic Wrath marks the point where Fenriz's guitar parts are starting to be written into the music, and the man himself proudly admits this was the point where the band stopped looking at just riffs, and instead started looking at songs as a whole. The intensity of early Darkthrone focussed entirely on the riff, so I believe this tidbit of information greatly explains the drastic change of direction the band would take not so long after Sardonic Wrath was released.

In that respect, Sardonic Wrath is the last "truly" black metal record that Darkthrone would release. It's not a bad record in any shape or form, and is in fact, pretty good, but I feel if this was put out by a new band at the time then it would have been considered a lot more groundbreaking, which is quite sad in it's own little way, as people become used to the status quo.

Darkthrone - The Cult Is Alive

Just quickly gonna put dibs on a review of this seeing as there's three of us writing now (four if Kristian gets off his ass and follows up with more). Darkthrone's The Cult Is Alive marked a turning point in the band's career; effectively buffeting their sails with a healthy second wind that easily saw them extending their legacy by another ten years or so. Let's face it, by the late 90s / early 2000s, Darkthrone's output was lacking somewhat. Nothing particularly terrible surfaced, but there was an awful lot of old shit coming out and being re-packaged, and then that was followed by records that were, dare I say it, almost like Darkthrone's attempts at nu-metal (or should that be the effects of the dire 90s rubbing off even on one of metal's most innovating bands). Again, not particularly bad, but albums like Hate Them and Sardonic Wrath lacked the freezing fire that Under A Funeral Moon and Transylvanian Hunger had.

But I digress. Moving swiftly along to the mid 00s, and Darkthrone dropped this fucker, seemingly out of nowhere, hitting the refresh button on their career. If someone told me 15 years ago that Darkthrone were a punk band I'd have a good chuckle at their genre-defining-ineptitude (actually I probably would have asked you who Darkthrone are, but there you go). Moving black metal into crust punk territories has been done a thousand times over, but let's face it; Darkthrone opened this type of shit up to a whole new generation of metalheads who hadn't quite made it to checking out Hellhammer yet. 

"Cult Of Goliath" is the ferocious opener, and the single off here (if that terminology is correct) is "Too Old, Too Cold"; a bitter and almost tired number, whose malice carries the nonchalant crust along sufficiently enough as not to become boring. "Graveyard Slut" has Fenriz taking on vocal duties in lieu of everyone's favourite grim and frostbitten school teacher, Nocturno Culto, and is also one of the greatest songs in the history of time. "Shut Up" is also another amazing stand out track with some fantastic lyrics ("begging for this and asking for that / shut up, fucking twat!"), as is the crusty-favourite, "Whiskey Funeral". 

This record proved so immensely successful that the next four Darkthrone records essentially followed the same template (although the latest one to date was a bit King Diamond-y for me). Strongly recommended listening!