Heavy Maytal- Darkthrone : "Pre-historic Metal"

 

It seems these guys are now transfixed on their Celtic Frost phase. They are still black metal if you are talking about how that genre was defined in the 80s. There is a rawer sound to this album than their previous one, but it does not hinder the head-banging, fist-pumping riffs. The vocals croaked with a Tom Warrior-like anguish, sitting back further into the guitars. You can still tell who this is as they have their ambiance abounding on the first song. The title track finds the tempo simmering to more of a Venom-like place. They built this to a more thrashing pace that is part  Mercyful Fate. There is just a hint of black metal, but it's done in such an old school way you can't tell except to notice the intensity shifts. 

"Siberean Thaw" is a weird one that wanders into oddly atmospheric places but sells itself with the killer riff the song ends on. "Deeply Rooted" finds the Mercyful Fate influence surfacing again. The snarl of the vocals does not contribute muh on this one, even though the guitars are pretty cool here. They could tell it was starting to drag when they wrote, as that point is when the riff shifts its groove. They try to go for a more Maiden-like gallop, which does not work as well. The sung vocals can be pitchy as usual. Though the sung vocals show great improvement on the most Mercyful Fate-like so far, "The Dry Wells of Hell," where he even goes up into a falsetto note.

While it is a bit of an odd bird, the more experimental atmosphere to "So I Marched to the Sunken Empire " was needed to break things up. It is the most interesting moment so far. Some proto thrashing goes down on "Eat Eat Eat Your Pride" that looks back a little into their older punk stuff. They do throw in a dynamic shift and slow it down. The more chugged riff is pretty powerful, so hard to complain about this song. 'Eon 4" closes the album with a more lumbering doom feel. The vocals feel like they were improvised on the first take. It shifts into a hookier, more Mercyful Fate-like riff, but vocally, there is no King Diamond.  I will give this one a 9 and see how it sits on me. When I want to hear Mercyful Fate, I will just play"Don't Break the Oath." But if that is what it takes to bring them out of the Celtic Frost phase it's a step in the right direction. 

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