DARKTHRONE- "ETERNAL HAILS" LP

LULUS:
When the album was released and I saw that it’s 5 tracks clocking seven to ten minutes each I had a feeling this was going to be their doom album, and a stone cold love letter to heavy metal. I wasn’t wrong. The heaviest influences here sound like a stylistic blend between Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate and 80’s doom metal. When it kicks into gear and goes into full throttle Darkthrone, it tends towards the their 90’s output post the Unholy Trinity records. It’s been 27 years since Transylvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust - the singular energy and serious satanic fervour of their early tunes haven’t been Darkthrone’s jam for a while. Enter “Too Old Too Cold” era Darkthrone; where the group began to operate in perhaps the only way which was going to bring creative longevity to the remaining duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto (maybe it’s true that Zephyrous walked into a forest in 1993 and never returned?) and that has been something which has felt like Master Satan’s Black Hearts Club Band, which is to say; their approach has been Darkthrone Presents…… whatever metal/punk style they want. The new modus operandi is to create riff heavy rock and roll records to for freaks crank loud when they’re getting freaky, way too blitzed to play guitar or drive or perform sexually or walk into the forest and expect to safely return. And they nail it. They nail it because Darkthrone know their history and they know themselves. There are some seriously excellent parts on the album, some riffs are memorable and timeless after just the first listen and I am convinced that the album closer (Lost Arcane City Of Uppakra) is a new classic, with the outro section being quite easily one of the best pieces of music they've written. So I must finish by saying; for giving us jewels among the treasures of 90’s black metal and for continuing to give us killer records to get annihilated to, I offer Darkthrone my sincerest eternal hails……