Darkthrone, a legendary and infamous name in the black metal genre. A band that has an interesting reputation and commanding respect amongst the legions of black metal fans all over the world. They were amongst the few norwegian black metal bands that started the wave of black metal that has since grown into the established, popular, and influential sect of extreme metal that we are experiencing today in the underground.
Darkthrone began their career playing a simplistic style of old-school-ish death metal, which is quite evident on their first release, "Soulside Journey". Quickly jumping bandwagons, Darkthrone (and others as well as Immortal) adopted the ideologies and minimalist music stylings of black metal...a hateful style of extreme metal created by the norwegians to combat "trendy" metal, religious ideologies and establishments, amongst other things...but that's a huge subject that I won't get into.
Darkthrone are famous for their outlandish statements and viewpoints in interviews which should be sought purely for the entertainment value...I guarantee a good laugh! And here we have yet another band that, alongside Mayhem, owes their fame and notoriety to image and "shocking" outlandish commentary rather than music. But does that mean their music sucks? Well... with understanding Darkthrone and the style of primitive, minimalist black metal comes appreciation, interest, and perhaps a strong attraction. The style is DEFINITELY not for everyone and many people hate Darkthrone's music, I warn anyone that is interested in hearing this band to try and hear some song samples or mp3's first before investing your money into buying their albums.

My feelings about this band and their music has gone from curiousity, disregard and disrespect, to acceptance and understanding. About 5 years ago, when I was a freshman in High School, I got my first taste of black metal and Darkthrone was one of the first bands I ever heard in this genre. Black metal instantly sparked my curiousity and interest...I dug deeper and discovered MANY bands, Emperor was the first black metal band I really liked (In the Nightside Eclipse is an album I still consider to be one of the best in black metal history) and I couldn't stand a lot of the other black metal bands, Darkthrone being one of them. I was really into the majestic darkness of Emperor (REAL black metal) and the simple, stripped-down music of Darkthrone completely turned me off...it wasn't dark, it wasn't aggressive, it wasn't BLACK, it was crap! I couldn't understand why Darkthrone was so huge and respected, so what if they were there at the inception of black metal?...their music sucks! I even took a chance and bought this album, 'Transilvanian Hunger'. In truth, it was the best Darkthrone material I had ever heard although I still didn't like it. It took me a long time and many listens for this album to grow on me.
Okay, let me get to analyzing this album already...

The key thing to understanding this music is that it's meant to be incredibly minimalistic, raw, and primitive in every aspect of the riffs, drumming, and production. Forget about depth and diversity, expect monotony! Darkthrone are, from what I've read, fairly accomplished musicians... they have created this simplistic, monotonous style in order to create atmosphere without the prescence of keyboards. The constant monotony of the drum beats and chordal riffs do indeed create an atmosphere that is quite original and unexplainable....I hated the simplicity at first and then grew to love it's atmosphere. The production is thin, raw, and distant, which is an acquired taste that takes some getting used to...so don't let the production hinder your listening experience, turn up the stereo loud!

The guitar riffs are kept very simple with a total lack of dynamics. What you get is a thinly distorted guitar barrage of chords and melody that are consistently speed picked at moderate speed, creating a repetative atmosphere. Riffs are repeated over and over to create this atmosphere and while it might make most people turn of their CD player immediately, I seriously suggest that you stick with it and absorb everything that's going on. The riffs are pretty damn effective at creating a dark atmosphere and a sinister vibe. This album sure has it's moments and there are some really good simple riffs going on at times, believe me...they repeat so much that you won't miss them!
Check out the 5th track, appox. 2:30 into the song there is a riff that Dark Funeral blatantly ripped off from Darkthrone...Dark Funeral performs it on the song "Vobiscum Satanas" from their second album of the same name.

The drums are the most repetative and monotonous aspect of Darkthrone's music. The riffs are monotonous, but at least they use different tones and progressions...the drums pound away at moderate speed with the same beat for-EVER! There are probably 3 different beats going on here, each only slightly different with a slight change in speed. The drums never blast away at high speeds, in fact, they never go fast at all...it's either moderately fast, mid-paced, or slow.

The vocals are pretty high in the mix and overpower the music on many occasions. The high/mid range rasp is effective for this style. The lyrics are in both Norwegian and English, written by Fenriz and Varg Vikernes of Burzum. The first half of the album's lyrics were penned by Fenriz (drums) and the other half by Varg (jailbait).

I wish I could elaborate more on the music and lyrics and refer to certain moments on the CD but I don't feel like getting totally in-depth with this review...maybe I'll update it when I'm inspired enough. In the spirit of Darkthrone's minimalist style, I've written a minimalist review! HA!

I definitely recommend this album to extreme metal fans... as I've said before, It's not for everyone's tastes but it deserves a listen. I've grown to really like this album as well as this original style. I encourage all those that listen to this to not just put it aside because of your first impression...it's simple and monotonous, but that's the beauty and the purpose of it! Try to really understand and take this music for what it is...or maybe some other black metal bands should be experienced first?

Check out Ulver's third album "Nattens Madrigal" (The Madrigal of Night). It's VERY similar to this album in it's monotony, rawness, and riff style, but with better riffs and more diversity. A great black metal album!

Abigor is a great black metal band with an incredibly raw production and highly original, creative style. I'm only mentioning this band because of a point I want to make about raw production....don't let it stop you from the music itself...Abigor write some GREAT music even though their production is CRAP!

It's hard to choose the con's....raw, primitive production might be considered a con, but for this style of music, it's almost essential! Same goes for the repetition and monotonous music style. I'll leave that for you to judge. Personally, I don't consider this album to have any con's for this style...I wish it was faster though, and I wish Darkthrone would put another album like this out again...though they won't! This is the only Darkthrone album of this style, the other albums are different and have a lot of old-school metal influence, especially Celtic Frost! I hate that style and I think that Darkthrone had a great style here with 'Transilvanian Hunger', no old-school groove, just straightforward, minimalist black metal atmosphere!



Recommended: Yes