The thing about Darkthrone some 25-plus years into their career is they don’t give a fuck. A lot of bands say that, but few say it as convincingly and have the fuckall in their approach to back it up that the long-running Norwegian duo seem to toss off on their records like so many squibbly riffs. Where that attitude has manifested itself over the course of their last several full-lengths as a raw, lo-fi punk aimed hard at the very roots of the black metal Darkthrone once pioneered on albums like A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) and Transylvanian Hunger (1994), their newest full-length and 16th by my count, The Underground Resistance (Peaceville), finds them blending that rawness with a traditional metal approach manifesting many of the influences they’ve claimed since 2007’s N.W.O.B.H.M – New Wave of Black Heavy Metal single signaled their transition from the blackened material of 2006’s The Cult is Alive — actually it was kind of stagnant — to later 2007’s F.O.A.D. (Fuck off and Die), at once a declaration and defense of its own stylistic shift.

But at this point, having pushed that punkish sound as far as it could go or at least as far as they were interested in pushing it with 2010’s bored-seeming-but-still-effective Circle the Wagons (review here), I honestly think that praise heaped on The Underground Resistance and harsh criticism of it sound the same in the ears of multi-instrumentalist/vocalists Ted “Nocturno Culto” Skjellum and Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell: It’s all just noise. If that’s actually the case, I don’t know, but it’s at least the perception and that character has become as much a part of Darkthrone‘s sound as Fenriz‘s campaigning on behalf of classic underground metal, so fervent that band recommendations on the last couple albums have come on a per-track basis in the liner notes, with Darkthrone cited on occasion as influencing themselves. All this makes the duo a fascinating entity, but ultimately has little to do with the music, which on The Underground Resistance remains as confrontational as ever in this semi-novel aesthetic sphere. The sound of the album’s six tracks is fuller and occasionally grander than that of Circle the Wagons or 2008’s Dark Thrones and Black Flags before it — as heavy metal was when it emerged early in the ’80s to distinguish itself from punk — but raw enough in its production to be called consistent. That is, between Nocturno Culto‘s trademark gurgle and the speedy gallop of the riffing on the penultimate “Come Warfare, the Entire Doom,” there’s little doubt you’re listening to a Darkthrone record, whatever kind of shenanigans they might be getting up to this time around.

And while homage is paid throughout the album’s 41 minutes to the likes of Manilla Road, Pagan Altar, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate — Fenriz rounding out the album with some pretty mean King Diamond-style vocal drama on the 14-minute closer “Leave No Cross Unturned” — whatever sonic references they might be making are filtered through their own approach so that Darkthrone still sound like Darkthrone. I don’t know if I’d call The Underground Resistance re-energized as compares to Circle the Wagons, but as a band who’ve emerged as being pretty self-aware over the last decade or so, they probably could sense it was time for a change in their approach, even if it wasn’t a conscious decision between the two members as they wrote their individual parts. Three years is also the longest break between Darkthrone albums since 1996’s Goatlord and 1999’s Ravishing Grimness, and if the extra time was spent developing this material, I’d have to believe it. Even “Leave No Cross Unturned,” which seems to switch back and forth between Fenriz and Nocturno Culto parts, nonetheless winds up with one of the collection’s strongest hooks in its chorus with the oft-repeated title line. Finding earlier companionship on the album in “The Ones You Left Behind,” which works from a similar foundation musically, it’s all one could reasonably ask of a closer for an album like The Underground Resistance, which makes a weapon even of its most accessible moments.

An initial tradeoff between Nocturno Culto‘s “Dead Early,” which opens, and the subsequent “Valkyrie,” credited to Fenriz, introduces much of the album’s breadth. The two will often switch off between each other in a tracklisting and the effect is a more versatile-sounding whole on The Underground Resistance. As a general rule — so much as there are any — Nocturno Culto‘s material is darker, Fenriz‘s more classic. At very least, that holds true on “Dead Early” and “Valkyrie,” as the grittier riffing of the one leads to the grandiose intro stomp of the other, and Fenriz‘s vocals, which have grown braver and cleaner. He doesn’t quite soar, but he makes a style of the howls on “Valkyrie” and ultimately it works to the song’s favor, especially moving into “Lesser Men,” the chugging riff of which makes for a lethal groove when set to the half-time drums, a guitar solo echoing high in a break in the first half before Nocturno Culto comes in with the second verse. Fenriz once again takes the reins in the speedy “The Ones You Left Behind,” also the shortest cut at 4:16, and at 2:16 lets out a high-pitched wail that’s almost more righteous for its imperfection, makes a reappearance at the beginning of “Leave No Cross Unturned” and is bound to show up again should Darkthrone continue down this road (one never really knows, but it’s an easy guess). Another catchy chorus leads to the likely-collaborative “Come Warfare, the Entire Doom,” which is more complex part-wise than the ensuing closer, but still some five full minutes shorter.

It spends some time meandering, but even on “Come Warfare, the Entire Doom,” Darkthrone are fairly to the point, and the echoing, effected leads that pop up amidst the gallop make for intriguing landmarks along with the satisfyingly metallic thrust. When it comes to “Leave No Cross Unturned” — the most apparent collaboration (I’d dare to say for sure, but hey, digital promos) between Fenriz and Nocturno Culto on The Underground Resistance — the song is also invariably the album’s greatest triumph, moving smoothly between its verse and chorus, so predictable and still so engaging, and slamming headfirst into the dirtier Celtic Frost-style riff and grunt of its midsection. Classic even unto its titular wordplay, “Leave No Cross Unturned” shifts back to its verse and chorus, layering clean vocals with screams in the chorus before running through once more at top speed and finally ending with the slower, groovier progression that showed up earlier as contrast, presumably donated by Nocturno Culto. Ending there, Darkthrone make a final statement no less present in its volume than anything prior on The Underground Resistance, affirming this next stage in their evolution with a big rock finish that’s as much a middle finger to anyone who might’ve thought they knew what Darkthrone would do next as anything on F.O.A.D. ever was. As with any band who’ve ever managed to last as long as Darkthrone has, their fans will likely divide into factions loyal to one era or another, but in their latest work, Darkthrone show themselves not only to still be driving toward territory not yet covered over the course of their career, but doing so in a vital manner worthy of the influence their music and their attitude has had on the international underground. Whatever The Underground Resistance might lead to, the only safe presumption is that Darkthrone won’t give a fuck what you think of it.

Darkthrone on Thee Facebooks

Peaceville Records

Tags: Darkthrone, Darkthrone The Underground Resistance, Norway, Oslo, Peaceville, The Underground Resistance

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.