darkthrone

This article is about the black metal band. For the online MMORPG, see Dark Throne.

Darkthrone is a highly influential Norwegian black metal band formed in 1987. They began their existence as a technical, jazz-influenced death metal outfit under the name of Black Death. They released several demos in this style, and were subsequently signed to Peaceville Records on a four album contract. After changing their name to Darkthrone, the band released their first full length album, Soulside Journey. Album was a fine dsplay of technical death metal, with clean production, progressive song structure, complex drumming patterns with lot of fills and breaks, and fast and accurate riffing. Soon afterward, primarily due to the influence of Euronymous of the band Mayhem, the members of Darkthrone decided that the death metal idiom was no longer relevant. The band adopted the aesthetic style which would come to represent the black metal scene, using corpsepaint and working under demonic and fantasy-inspired pseudonyms. At this point, Dag Nilsen left the band, as he did not appreciate the black metal aesthetic which the group had adopted; Nocturno Culto took over bass duties. Darkthrone subsequently recorded and released the album A Blaze in the Northern Sky. Although strongly inspired by the works of Bathory and Celtic Frost, this album achieved a unique sound by bringing punk-like simplicity and chaos to metal. This album caused a frenzy among underground metal fans, and it even caused Peaceville to consider the possibilty of dropping the band. With the their following album, Under A Funeral Moon, the band delved even deeper into the black metal sound. In retrospect, this album is considered a landmark for the genre as a whole. It was followed by their quintessential masterpiece, Transilvanian Hunger, which is generally regarded as their finest work. All of these early black metal albums explored the themes of a corrosive sound, extremely low fidelity recording quality, and musical simplicity and minimalism. Darkthrone to this day remain a powerful force in the black metal genre, though they have experimented with their influences throughout time.