Members of Mayhem and Darkthrone in an early '90s photo
DARKTHRONE'S release of A Blaze in the Northern Sky in 1992 was an earth-shattering event in the history of black metal. The Norwegian scene hadn't put out many full-length studio albums yet, and Darkthrone's first album was basically death metal, not black metal. Darkthrone now consisted of three members since Dag Nilsen had left: Zephyrous, Nocturno Culto, and Fenriz. However, they had a renewed focus now that they were committed to black metal.
The follow-up to Blaze is the 1993 classic Under a Funeral Moon. On this album, Darkthrone (by their own admission) moved even further away from their death metal roots. They acknowledged that they had still used a death metal template for some of their songs on Blaze, but had now jettisoned that foundation. Even Fenriz himself admitted that Blaze was "a lot of death metal with some black metal parts." 1993's Under a Funeral Moon, however, was "pure black metal."
Here's "Unholy Black Metal," from Under a Funeral Moon
With Under a Funeral Moon (even more than Blaze), the classic second wave black metal template began to solidify. The primitive, blasting drums; the raw, screeched vocals; the tremolo picking riffs....all of it was present in a way that felt new and fresh. It has even been called the "blackest black metal" album that Darkthrone has ever made.
Soon after its release, Darkthrone entered the studio to record its follow-up. At the time, however, things had changed in the Norwegian scene. In 1991 and 1992, things in the Norwegian black metal scene had been relatively organic and tightly knit. There were few actual black metal bands and the focus was on the music. But by 1993, the church burnings and murders associated with the Inner Circle had begun to distract people from the music. It also attracted media attention and resulted in the scene being flooded with black metal posers. This state of affairs greatly influenced Darkthrone's mindset as they recorded their next album.
"Slottet I Det Fjerne" is one of their most famous tracks from Transilvanian Hunger
Now a duo (Zephyrous left the band after a car accident), Darkthrone released album number four in early 1994. This album--Transilvanian Hunger--was another masterpiece that changed the face of black metal. Even more raw, with an aura of misanthropic darkness (which resulted from a dark, ultra lo-fi production), Hunger had blazingly fast songs that influenced a generation of black metallers. Within the span of three years, Darkthrone had revolutionized black metal.
One source of controversy was the band's messaging on the album itself. On the back cover of the album, the band labeled their music as "Norwegian Aryan Black Metal," and in the liner notes they noted that anyone who criticized their music was behaving in a "Jewish" fashion. Years later, Fenriz himself noted that this kind of language was unacceptable and even called it "disgusting."
Off of Panzerfaust, this is "Hans siste vinter"
While Darkthrone's first three black metal albums (Blaze, Funeral, Hunger) are sometimes called their 'unholy trinity' because of how influential and revolutionary they were, I like to lump in their 1995 release, Panzerfaust, as well. The structure laid down on Hunger and Funeral were present, to some degree, but the production values were notably different. The vocals had a more vile, trebly feel to them than in previous albums, giving the entire album an angry rawness that was less present on the earlier releases. All told, Panzerfaust is just as essential as Under a Funeral Moon or Transilvanian Hunger.
One of the most important black metal bands of all time, Kolbotn, Norway's DARKTHRONE didn't start out as the black metal machine we all have come to know and love. They formed in 1986 as Black Death, and were a fairly typical-sounding black/death metal band (by 1986 standards). They put out two demos in two years, Trash Core and Black is Beautiful, before changing their name to Darkthrone in 1987. The name was inspired by a metal zine and the Celtic Frost song "Jewel Throne". Band members in this time period included Gylve Nagell, Ivar Enger, Ted Skjellum, Anders Risberget, and Dag Nilsen.
This is an example of Black Death's sound from the 1987 demo Black is Beautiful
In the late 1980s, Darkthrone put out a slew of demos that showcased their old-school death metal style. Their sound was actually pretty similar to what Swedish bands like Nihilist were doing at the time. It was through these demos that Darkthrone cemented their underground reputation and came to be considered one of Norway's extreme metal elite. By 1990, they had put out four now-legendary demos (Land of Frost, A New Dimension, Thulcandra, and Cromlech) and caught the ears of record label Peaceville. They then signed a four album deal with them. The first album--recorded in late 1990--was 1991's Soulside Journey, a classic that hearkens back to the old-school death metal scene of the 1980s, but still contains the seeds of the black metal sound Darkthrone would eventually become known for.
"Eon" is from the 1989 demo Thulcandra
"Cromlech" is one of their most crucial tracks from Soulside Journey
After the release of Soulside Journey, Darkthrone began recording material for their next album. However, partway through the recording process, the creative core of Darkthrone--Gylve Nagell, Ted Skjellum, and Ivar Enger--began to become more interested in the emerging Norwegian black metal scene. They adopted evil pseudonyms (Fenriz, Nocturno Culto, and Zephyrous, respectively) and even took to donning corpsepaint as part of their musical conversion. This also resulted in their scrapping of what they had recorded of their second album so far. They went back to the drawing board and started anew.
"Rex" is from the Goatlord recording sessions
That unreleased material was shelved for several years before being released as the 1996 album Goatlord. But it was the direction that Darkthrone took in late 1991 that had a huge influence on black metal (especially the Norwegian scene). Darkthrone shifted from a sound that resembled death metal masters Entombed and Nihilist, to the raw, lo-fi grimness that black metal fans the world over have since come to expect from Norway.
As a result of this change in direction, bassist Dag Nilsen left the band. He is credited as a session player only. Peaceville Records, too, was shocked to find that the band they had signed was no longer playing the then-trendy death metal. They initially refused to release this new album, until Darkthrone threatened to have it released through Euronymous' Deathlike Silence Productions. Peaceville relented and this album--entitled A Blaze in the Northern Sky--was released in 1992.
"The Pagan Winter" is from 1992's A Blaze in the Northern Sky
With this release, Darkthrone forever changed the black metal landscape. Hordes of bands would come along and copy the template that Darkthrone laid down on this album. But few have ever equaled the evil majesty achieved on this epic release. Darkthrone, however, were just getting started...
Darkthrone performing an early version of "A Blaze in the Northern Sky"
live in 1991
Select Discography
as Black Death
Trash Core '87 (demo)(1987)
Black is Beautiful (demo)(1987)
as Darkthrone
Land of Frost (demo)(1988)
A New Dimension (demo)(1988)
Thulcandra (demo)(1989)
Cromlech (demo)(1989)
Soulside Journey (full-length)(1991)
A Blaze in the Northern Sky (full-length)(1992)
Goatlord (full-length) (recorded 1991, released 1996)
