Forum.RttP{THE CULT IS ALIVE!!! (New DarkThrone)}

DARKTHRONE - THE CULT IS (STILL) ALIVE
Written by Roy Kristensen
Sunday, 11 December 2005
Rumour has it that there will be no promo for "The Cult Is Alive", so reporter Roy Kristensen appeared at the pre-listening in Oslo, 10th of December 2005, to get an impression of the album as well as the single.

Intro

Sitting here in Oslo together with a lot of darkened dressed metal folks is always a nice thing to do a Saturday morning. Though, morning? We’re speaking 2 pm.
The occasion is obviously the listening-session of DarkThrone’s upcoming album, “The Cult Is Alive” as well as their single “Too Old, Too Cold” which is released prior to the full-length.
Fenriz guides us through the album, though not saying too much. And why should he? Shouldn’t he let the music speak for itself? Of corpse he should and he does! Though, only once as Fenriz told me he didn’t want to make too much fuzz about the whole thing this afternoon.

The single

The single “Too Old, Too Cold” is hereby presented to us. This four track single includes, ahem, four tracks. “Too Old, Too Cold” is DarkThrone standard as we’ve learnt to like throughout the years. Pounding as usual, hammering our ears with heavy riffs. Decent DarkThrone rock’n’metal with the necessary punk attitude.

“High On Cold War” is a tricky one. It’s not an Enslaved track, but you wonder for a mere second when Grutle starts to sing. The surprise was higher than my ability to concentrate on the actual music, so it’ll be interesting to listen to this again.

“Love In A Void” is a cover track originally done by Siouxie And The Banshees. I don’t know the original track, so I couldn’t tell if the DarkThrone-version is better or anything. But it sounds DarkThrone-ish, so there you go.

“Graveyard Slut” is pretty long. At least it feels like that (in a positive way), and we’re delighted to hear the tempo changes, altering from the more standard thing into the small changes accompanied by Fenriz’ personal drumming as we know it.

Intermission

It seems like Fenriz likes Bathory “Hammerhearth”-era. During the break, he played the mentioned album as well as a couple of other old goodies. Perhaps to set the mood for all I know, and well… Now I’m basically babbling, after all I came here for “The Cult Is Alive”. Concerning the album title, I think it’s a fine title, but perhaps it’s a bit unnecessary, since we know that it is alive. I mean, DarkThrone is cult, and DarkThrone is alive. Now, perhaps there’s another meaning behind the title, so let’s be patient and hear what they have to say in an interview or two, coming next year I guess.
The crowd at Nero (the pre-listening place) was impatiently awaiting the new album. A couple of beers to most of them reduced the waiting, but yours truly didn’t drink beer today. More about this later…

The full-lenght

The opening track “The Cult Of Goliath” has the tremendous dark DarkThrone mark all over it. But towards the end they slow down a little bit, and the ending of the track is surely worth a few dimes. Sounds great.

“Too Old, Too Cold” is as on the single. The break is again super, slow and it's hammering the hell out of us. Fenriz sounds rather fresh, I dare say. Nocturno’s trademarked guitar is in front and he hasn’t sounded this angry since “Panzerfaust”. I remember that album being quite Celtic Frost-ish, but Culto’s dry vocal was special and to me it did the whole album. The vocal on this upcoming release is not identical, by all means, but I sense the dryness I remember from “Panzerfaust”.

“Atomic Coming” has an amazing chorus. Simple perhaps, but it lifts the more standard DarkThrone-ism to decent heights. Again I’d say that Nocturno Culto’s voice hits you in the stomache (intentional misspelling), leaving you with a comfortable expression in your face.

“Graveyard Slut” has Fenriz on vocals, while on the single I assume it’s standard Culto-ish ones. A bit Tom G. Warrior does add to the mysticism. It strikes me while listening to this, that the guitar sound is really ugly. And it’s strike me as odd that this is how it should be; crispy, hurting and somewhat comforting. Wicked, this DarkThrone thing. A great track, with Fenriz’ vocal and his “ughs” as the highlight.

Back to business with “Underdogs And Overlords”. Nocturno strikes hard and sounds rather fresh in his angriness. I’m sure the clean air in his living-place does wonders to his voice, not that he didn’t sound good on the previous albums. “Hate Them” is still a classic. Yeah, this is passion and black metal the true way, discuss it or nor. The break turning into the slow pounding is again amazing. DarkThrone really knows how to make us feel great.

“Whiskey Funeral”. Ahh, what a fantastic title of an otherwise anonymous track. This is too plain to stick out. But hey, it’s DarkThrone and they include the tempo-change also in this track. However, a bit too simple all over, leaving me as the album’s weakest point so far.

“De Underjordiske” has probably the best slow part DarkThrone has done in recent years. It’s so DarkThrone-slow and it continues for quite some time until the track ends. Could’ve been 5 minutes longer for all I know, and I'm sure it wouldn't turn out boring at all.

“Tyster På Gud” includes Fenriz on rhythm guitars. Ok, big deal. Frankly speaking there’s no significant difference to Culto’s style, perhaps a bit simpler. The solo is so noisy that it brings back memories of Bathory’s distorted ones from way back in time. It’s basically noise, but goddamnit it works.

“Shut Up” is another masterpiece of a song-title. Typical Fenriz to come up with stuff like this. And the refrain is doing the whole otherwise pretty standard track sound better. “Shut Up”… ahhhh, what an amazing title. So simple, so straight and so in there..

Also Nocturno Culto knows his Celtic Frost-ian vocalization. His “ugh” sets the pace, and once again DarkThrone writes a slow hellhammering track that surely makes you raise your hand with an ale (or a cup of tea in my case) in it high up in the air, shouting a loud “cheers” to the metal we have learnt to love throughout the years. The solo towards the end is not noisy, and despite its length it fades into black the way it’s supposed to. I don’t know if Nocturno and Fenriz really know how to make a dynamic track, but “Forebyggende Krig” feels very dynamic and the ending of the track leaves us with a desire to hear more. Play it again, Sam!

Overall impression

As an general impression, the sound is ugly and just what we desire from DarkThrone. Nocturno Vocals is thicker than the one on “Under A Funeral Moon”, though reminiscent of it. Perhaps a mix between those of “Under…” and “Panzer…”. The tiny bit of echo (at least it sounds like this) is adding to the dryness of the vocals.
The audience clap their hands and we can surely await 2006, as we can rest assured DarkThrone will give us another great black metal album. If all other bands fail, well, there’s always DarkThrone to trust.

Epilogue

I may sound a bit praising here, but having followed this band since “Soulside Journey” you can accuse me of being biased if you will, and as a subjective Norwegian I do nothing to hide my point of subjectivism… …and honesty.