Darkthrone once again have gone against the grain of Black Metal clichés just to do whatever the fuck they feel is fun because as silly as it sounds this album is just straight up fun
Because remember kids the band themselves are quite the enigmas. While i don’t know a great deal about NocturnoCulto’s (Ted) stuff outside of Darkthrone I do know he’s made a documentary about Norwegian black metal.
While Fenriz on the other hand is almost a caricature of what he started out as this is the guy who in the metal media has gone from being “Trve”, “Cvlt” and “Grym”
To this wacky guy right here
And between his constant side projects and never hiding his opinion publicly on anything in the black metal scene he has become something of a force and a rebel within the “Trve Norwegian Black Metal” community. Especially with the last few albums leaning towards a crust punk and death rock sound more than the traditional black metal sound they began with
With “The Underground Resistance” they are paying homage to those who came before them in the extreme metal genre as well as somewhat continuing with crust punk sound they had put out on their last few release
The albums opening track “Dead Early” is extremely reminiscent of early Celtic Frost and has a very “Into the crypt of rays” vibe about it
The following track “Valkrie” is almost a NWoBHM sounding track again showing Fenriz and Ted having fun with what they grew up with and helped them define their sound. The intro and outro to the track have a very doomy dirge sound
Next is a track titled “Lesser Men” seems more of an old school black metal/trash metal style track in the vein of Venom. This track like many of the others does have some great little soloing going on which works well because it’s not over done. Definite Tom G Warrior esque vocals on this one too
The fourth track titled “The Ones You Left Behind” again much like “Valkrie” has some series NWoBHM flavour to it with harmonised vocals on the chorus which sound great and include Ted hitting some epic high notes vocal wise
Then comes the slow and plodding “Come Warfare, The Entire Doom” which again shows them take a Doom metal approach really hitting home the power of the riffs Ted is supplying
The album then closes with an epic 13 minute track “Leave No Cross Unturned” which I pretty much refer to as “Mercyful Throne” because there is definite Mercyful Fate stamp all over this track. That being said it’s still the true stand out track on the whole album
This album is somewhat short and very sweet. From start to finish it just comes across as a very fun album made by 2 guys with no agenda other than to just make the music they want to hear without any of the baggage or labels associated with traditional Norwegian black metal. I cannot recommend this album enough to people who just want to hear something different from the norm in that scene and just a fun and enjoyable album all the way to the end.
Fun is allowed in Norwegian Black Metal after all
The Underground Resistance is out now through Peacevile records
