Darkthule - In the Sight of Dawn EP (2006)

If I can admit to some superficiality, Darkthule is a band I always would have liked to see succeed. Just something about their dark, brooding atmospheres, cool cover art and memorable logo that I find so aesthetically pleasing as to silently cross my fingers and hope that each new release would at last deliver the goods. Sadly, this has yet to come to pass, and their demos, splits, and both full-lengths have been at best underwhelming. However, I wouldn't describe any of them as actively bad, a trait that can certainly be said for their 2006 EP In the Sight of Dawn, one of the most truly lazy pieces of crude, effortless black metal you're likely to hear. I doubt much importance was placed upon it by the band, since this is another of those limited edition 7" pieces with but a pair of tracks present; but another shot has been taken in the dark, missing its target by the widest berth of their career.

No, nothing other than a pair of lamentably generic and forgettable tracks beyond the six minute range, with monotonous and repetitive riffs you've heard countless times before, or at least their very damn near likenesses. The vocals feel garbled and petulant, more of a laconic conversational rasp than any passionate pronunciations, and the note streams follow that old Transilvanian Hunger vibe, only without the same hypnotic effect the Norwegians were going for. The drums are immensely tinny, hurried along beneath the dire melodic chord sequences, and not a single compelling guitar riff manifests anywhere. "In the Sight of Dawn..." is marginally less irritating than "The Greatness of Gods", if only because it has a slower tempo mixed into its incendiary, numbing blast work. The production of the EP is inferior even to the previous Revolution of Souls, which was honestly a pair of half-decent tracks. Perhaps the most raw and unassuming recording since the band's demos.

It's a pity, because I really want to like this stuff. The cover is once again appealing, and I like the ideal of these duo-tone, rustic images out of folklore and history. A sole wanderer gazing upon some natural edifice, some bubbling brook, waterfall, or wild beast. The isolated aesthetic may in fact be captured through the distant tone of the music here, but that doesn't make it any more interesting due to its strictly uninspiring level of composition. I'd be surprised if Darkthule couldn't knock out dozens of such tracks in a week, because there is just nothing to this droning waste of dead-horse beating. Surely they are capable of so much more, but will we ever get to hear it?

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10]

http://www.thepaganfront.com/darkthule/

Darkthule - Revolution of Souls EP (2005)

The Revolution of Souls EP bears very little structural difference from the full-length that had come but a few months before it. At least as far as the music. On the surface, it's a limited edition 7" built for collector appeal, but while it once again features attractive cover art, the contents are no more than the standard, contrived raw black metal being blustered forth by thousands of artists worldwide. A ton of mediocre, blasted sequences anchored only by what one would hope is the refinement of the guitar. That said, the two tracks here are notably more under-polished and dirty sounding than those of Wolforder, and there are a few tweaks that make for a marginally more hostile, memorable showcase than either of the band's albums before it.

This is achieved through a superior sense for atmosphere. The manic, tortured vocals being squelched out over "Days Like Years", for example feel truly grisly, and the strange, crashing early bridge seemed to come out of nowhere. The fuzzy, tremolo riffing is nothing out of the ordinary, but the roughness of the distortion here gives it a particular ringing that resounds in the skull for at least a brief spell after the track ends. "The Gospel of the Heretic Scorn" continues this process, straight ahead noisy black metal akin to Transilvanian Hunger or the old Burzum records, but it builds a nice wall of airy force, and the synthesizer sequence that arrived in its depths is not unwelcome, offering some sheltered variation from the seething storm that led up to it.

In truth, I like these songs more than any I experienced on the full-lengths, even if the actual production sounds more rushed and amateurish. It's one of those cases where the atmosphere (accidental or possibly intentional) really gels to create a consistent hostility. Fans who worship any of the old Norse works of Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Mayhem, and so forth would feel right at home. That said, Revolution of Souls is hardly a leap beyond Wolforder, and in short time, the songs are just as forgotten. But for 13+ minutes of strictly by the book, snarling primacy, you could do worse.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Darkthule - Wolforder (2005)

Aesthetically, Wolforder is an album I feel some stirring in my blood to fawn over. The grim, nebulous cover art contrasts beautifully with the Greeks' inspiring, sharp, wicked logo; both its title and lyrical focus of atavistic, predatory pride and valor seem memorable enough. Whilst I've ever been predisposed towards the more unique character of Hellenic acts like Rotting Christ or Necromantia, long have I searched for a band from this scene who could broach the European landscape with the broader, Norse or Swedish derived sounds we've long associated in the medium. When I look at Darkthule's sophomore, I think to myself 'this could be the one'. And then, when I listen to it, I realize how such hopes were but shallow and misplaced...

For once again, Darkthule have executed their music in as stylistically safe a means as possible. Nothing presented on this album stands out or beyond the myriad precedents that the black metal enthusiast has experienced for 15 years before it. That in of itself would not be reason enough to scoff at its existence, but then the responsibility lies on the artist to carve out some quality riffing and memorable structure, which the Greeks do not here. Considering that the framework of Transilvanian Hunger, Det Som Engang Var and De Mysteriis dom Sathanas have provided all the necessary fundamentals, bands like Darkthule have all the tools with which to build upon. Instead, most of the album blasts along with unmemorable, garden variety guitar passages like those of "The Return and the Reborn of the Immortals", "The Day That We Will Return", "W.A.R." and so forth. Trite blasting with little variation, the one weapon being employed across the somber din of airy aggression being the slightly more filthy approach taken by the vocals.

Wolforder does possess a handful of slower fare ("Bloodshed for Victory", a few breakdowns in the other songs), but it takes practically 20-25 minutes for this to manifest, and in the meantime the riffs are just not strong enough to carry forth the same terrifying inspiration as the band's forebears were able to manage 10-15 years before. I've got no problem with the band's crude sense of production, in fact I revel in the form, but when the standout track on an album is a cover of one of the most obvious influences (Burzum's "Lost Wisdom"), it's hard not to feel as if the whole package represents another would-be lurking in the shadows, afraid to step one talon beyond the predetermined. The tinny if focused drums are no more than average, the bass never a factor, the guitars repetitious and lacking the captivation necessary to carry the force of the writing, and Wolforder ends up where Beyond the Endless Horizons left off: in a withering tempest of indistinction.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10] (I will swallow the blasphemers)

Darkthule - Beyond the Endless Horizons (2004)

Darkthule are yet another of the NS-associated black metal acts to originate out of Greece in the 21st century, but they're perhaps the most subtle of the lot. Their lyrics revolve around the same basal restoration of Europe to its ancient values, a cleansing of culture from the poisoning of outside influences, but without the epithet slinging rigmarole you might expect of the niche. Beyond the Endless Horizons is, like many of its Scandinavian influences, absorbed in the elemental and pagan concepts of antiquity, but this is by no means restricted to the words, for the music itself provides an antithesis to the notion of complexity or innovation.

Ripping, raw streams of chords given resonance through a hefty dose of reverb, they hammer along a similar course to Norse legends Immortal, Mayhem and Enslaved on their formative works of the early 90s. I actually enjoy the distant dissonance they create through the low fi production of the debut; but on the other hand, the actual guitar patterns leave me less than inspired, and the rather standard rasp to the vocals and monotonous blasting rhythms simply don't manifest into anything truly malevolent or memorable. This is an admittedly brief record, clocking in at around 27 minutes (much longer if you've got the re-release with bonus demos), with only four blackened tracks at its core, book-ended by a bland if atmospheric acoustic guitar sequences with some special effects. But most of the metal here moves at the same accelerated tempo, with nary a difference between the drums in "Revealment of the Cosmic Harmony", "The Lightning and the Sun", or "Beyond the Endless Horizons".

Unflattering patterns of notes cascade and careen through landscapes of far less color than the cover art might hint, and the band is also privy to those sorts of transitions where the beat will stop entirely and a tremolo sequence will ring out into the horizon. If these were impressive riffs, then the technique would be easier to appreciate, but in this case the breaks are just as vapid as when the band is blasting along with the full strength of vocals, drums, and bass. The album is incredibly difficult to distinguish from so many others of its style, and yet there is nothing truly lamentable about the performance here. It's stock, aggressive black metal with an airy drift of atmosphere that wouldn't be out of place on some through barren plains, the skies overcast and a storm possible brewing somewhere on the horizon. This in of itself isn't bad. But at no time does it ever surge 'beyond' that visual border, and it ultimately offers only the least ambitious of absorptions.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10] (with the speed of the winds)

http://www.thepaganfront.com/darkthule/