Darkthrone has been long associated with being “True Norweigan Black Metal” but has not made any attempt to adhere to this expectation of them since 2004’s “Sardonic Wrath”. Instead, the band has circled its wagons around crust punk and wandered off Celtic Frost worship. “It Beckons Us All…” (Peaceville Records) finds the band perfecting the traditional metal path they first embarked on with “The Underground Resistance”. Now 11 years later the duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto are done obsessing over their record collection and have focused on writing headbanging anthems that cold a touch of melody and mystery.
The Celtic Frost worship that has marked their releases for the past decade, is replaced by hookier writing that owes more to Mercyful Fate. They have retained many of their sonic trademarks. Hailing from Southern Norway, they do not need to pretend they are Vikings to capture the Nordic grimness that rings out in their chords. While some bands try too hard to be “black metal” the bleak atmosphere that is the essence of the genre, is just a part of who they are even when the band is trying to write a traditional metal album.
“Eon 3″ finds the Mercyful Fate influence at its thickest. In this song, the vocals are more sung than snarled. This highlights the work they have invested in becoming better singers. Twenty albums deep into their career, these guys are still perfecting their craft, whereas plenty of other bands are content to just dial it in. This can also be said of the guitar playing and production, as more melodic nuances that can be heard throughout the album. “The Bird People Of Nordland” finds them stepping back into a more Celtic Frost-like direction. It’s hard to complain about this as they have taken this influence and continue to twist this sound into something of their own making. As opposed to some leather-clad metal gods whose more recent work feels like they asked AI to write them riffs that sound like the band they once were. They are not trying to appease fans who want to hold onto the band they were in 1994. While Darkthrone does not take many glances back to where they came from here, when they do speed up to a more thrashing pace for “The Bird People of Nordland” it might come close enough to satisfy fans of the blast beats past.
The massive riff that opens the last song would not sound out of place on one of Metallica’s early albums. From there the ten-minute epic grinds down into a lumbering chug, that closes with a riff that they meant to sound like Mercyful Fate, but if it was not for the ballsy bellow of the vocals, would have felt like “Out of the Cellar” era Ratt. This might not be a return to black metal, but the guitars carry enough grim tendencies to keep their actual fan base happy. After all, if you have stuck with them throughout all of the phases, this is the logical conclusion to the journey the band has been on. It could be argued that this is the band’s most accessible work yet, due to the increased production value, but if that is the case it was certainly not intentional on the band’s part. They continue to make music for themselves first and are content with their place in the hollowed halls of heavy metal. They do not feel the need to tour or bring attention to their work, simply letting it speak for itself. This time it speaks loudly and in a more polished manner that feels like this is the album they have been trying to make since “Artic Thunder”. This is certainly the best album of this phase of their career.
Buy the album here:
https://darkthrone.lnk.to/beckons
9 / 10
WIL CIFER