DARKTHRONE – Circle the Wagons CD

DARKTHRONE – Circle the Wagons CD
Peaceville Records

Back in 2008 I sent the review I had written for Dark Thrones and Black Flags to Fenriz. It was a positive review but I never did get a response back. That does happen but anyway at year’s end I sent him an email saying that Dark Thrones and Black Flags was Scumfeast Metal’s favorite Punk/Hardcore release for 2008. To that announcement Fenriz did reply back saying “Well thanks but we consider it Speed Metal”. Oh well what are you gonna do. So this is the third installment of Nocturno Culto and Fenriz’s Punk/Hardcore/Crust period, the first being FOAD in 2007. Since this was written and recorded between 2008 and 2009 I was wondering if some of these songs were throwaways from 2008’s Dark Thrones and Black Flags release. Hey look ya gotta wonder sometimes since these two guys are constantly busy with some project musical or not. Nocturno is the one usually involved with some other musical venture like last year’s SARKE. Fenriz is always busy making mix CDs for Vice Magazine, posting obscure metal band links on his Myspace blog or on the phone with another Black Metal documentary film director. How they find time to fit in writing and recording another great release is a mystery.

Yes Circle the Wagons is a great release just like the previous two. The songs on here hold more to NWOBHM than Fenriz’s beloved Speed Metal aesthetic. You could also toss in alot of 80’s Hardcore/Punk and Thrash to boot. Plenty of new bands are riding this wave of Blackened Punk which many cite DARKTHRONE as starting the tsunami. But where those bands keep the harsh Black Metal styled vocals, DARKTHRONE does not and it works well. Songs like “I Am the Grave of the 80’s” and “I am the Working Class” sound as if some shaved headed, wild eyed, beer gutted misanthrope is behind the mic. (Wow was that self referential or what?) Musically I think anyone into 80’s Metal, with the exception being Hair Metal, will hear a familiar riff or two, not that borrowing riffs from the past is anything new in Extreme Metal. Remember DARKTHRONE doesn’t care about the scene police, music reviewers or self made critics. This one is number fifteen as far as full length releases go for them and they ain’t slowing down. I guess I’ll be emailing Fenriz again in December.

www.peaceville.com