Norwegian legends Darkthrone and I have something in common: We both couldn’t give less of a fuck about the legacy of black metal. Though with earlier albums like Transilvanian Hunger and A Blaze in the Northern Sky, they helped shape that the genre would become in the ‘90s and beyond, the duo of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Nocturno Culto and drummer/vocalist Fenriz have morphed into an oldschool punk/metal wrecking crew, giving nods to Trouble and obscure/classic ‘80s speed metallers along the way.

Their oppositional stance to press, playing live and (occasionally) their own fans has made Darkthrone a pariah in the world of underground metal, and I doubt very much they’d have it any other way. As on their more recent albums, F.O.A.D. (2007) and Dark Thrones and Black Flags (2008), the latest, Circle the Wagons (Peaceville), was composed half by Fenriz and half by Nocturno Culto, and contains the barebones stuff of heavy metal hunger. Imagine being in a band for 23 years and still sounding as ravenous as though you were just releasing your first demo.

What’s most striking about Circle the Wagons opener “Those Treasures Will Never Befall You” is how produced it is. Of course, it’s all relative, but compared to Dark Thrones and Black Flags and F.O.A.D., which basically sounded as live and lo-fi as you can get, Circle the Wagons starts off sounding polished. I chalk it up to the added experience the band has recording themselves and maybe some new equipment at Necrohell Studios, where they make all their albums. Nonetheless, the song — a Fenriz composition — feels like the duo are starting to develop within this still basically new stage of their career, beginning to evolve within their punk/metal sound. The vocals are a little more complex in their arrangement, and on the whole it comes off as less reckless than some of their output in the last few years. It’s an interesting development.

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The PR wire owns your soul with this news about new Darkthrone. They rule and have an influence on underground rock farther reaching than any genre tag you want to saddle on them, so yes, the album will be covered here. If that makes me a hipster poseur loser whatever, I’ll gladly refer you to the banner at the top of the page and hope that clears up the argument.

Here’s the info:

The unrelenting Norwegian duo, Darkthrone, will welcome a new decade with a new album, to be released on Peaceville Records. Circle the Wagons, a creative feast of metal and punk, will initially be released on vinyl on March 8th, through the Peaceville Records webstore, as an exclusive taster for the legions of metal supporters out there who still care about great music delivered the classic way. The vinyl will also include a link to download a digital version of the album, which will be available when the regular and special edition CD versions of the album are released on April 6th.

Circle the Wagons was self-recorded at Necrohell II Studios. Artwork for the album comes once again courtesy of Dennis Dread, notable for his talents on previous Darkthrone albums, F.O.A.D. and 2008’s Dark Thrones and Black Flags.

Drummer/lyricist, Fenriz explains the meaning behind the title…

“The new metal decade starts with our album. It is a message to the invaders of our metal domain to circle their wagons!  With our own brand of heavy metal/speed metal-punk we are a constant ambush on the modern overground metal traitors. Join us in our fight against instant gratification, and let’s see who stands when the smoke clears.”

Track listing:
01. Those Treasures Will Never Befall You
02. Running for Borders
03. I am the Graves of the 80s
04. Stylized Corpse
05. Circle the Wagons
06. Black Mountain Totem
07. I am the Working Class
08. Eyes Burst at Dawn
09. Bränn Inte Slottet

Oh sure, I’ve serenaded the dusky welkin with the occasional anthem, I’ve been disciplined in fire and demise, I’ve enjoyed the periodic nightside eclipse and even [insert something clever about the self-titled Emperor album here], but there is a fandom cult league for highly influential Norwegian black metallers Emperor to which I simply don’t belong. Not that I can’t or don’t appreciate the records, I just don’t salivate like a Pavlovian dog at the mere mention of their titles.

Accordingly, I feel in some strange way qualified to review After, the third post-Emperor solo outing of frontman Ihsahn (né Vegard Sverre Tveitan). I’m familiar with his work, but not masturbatingly so; having heard both 2008’s angL and 2006’s The Adversary, it’s possible to have some sense of what he’s done since Emperor’s disbanding and what exactly he’s changing up with After. You know, other than throwing in some free jazz saxophone and that kind of thing.

Ihsahn, who also recorded After in his Symphonique Studio, still plays with the melodies and progressive death metalisms he showed on angL, it it’s not until the title track, third of the total eight, that that side really shows up. The first two tracks, “The Barren Lands” and “A Grave Inversed” — the latter featuring that aforementioned free jazz saxophone — are righteously heavy and nearly if not completely blackened metal. Even on “After,” Ihsahn’s vocals morph into his trademark throaty approach, although they do so over an angular Opethian riff with single notes layered before shifting back into a melodic chorus. Nothing’s ever the same.

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