Very few bands can get away with everything Darkthrone has done musically. Starting as death metal band and then becoming shortly after one of the many faces of the second wave of black metal bands in Norway, the band has (Excuse the pun) manifested a cult following in their career, with no shortage of albums and releases to keep their fans waiting. Twenty-five years after the release of Soulside Journey, Darkthrone are giving their fans Arctic Thunder, their 16th studio album and one that should resonate with fans of their older material more than their recent output.
As non-conformist as they have always been, Darkthrone have thrown fans another curveball in the change of their sound, which seems to appeal to their entire fanbase all at once. Bringing back a clearly present black metal style to their music, Darkthrone are embracing their musical beginnings again, all the while mixing heavy metal rhythms and progressions to form music reminiscent of the black metal of the 80s. This is great, right? Everyone wins with this new Darkthrone album in the end.
“Winning” seems to be great, but as for the actual quality of the album, the huge downside to Arctic Thunder is that the album may bring back the black metal to Darkthrone’s sound, but other than that, it simply just is. Darkthrone don’t necessarily reinvent the wheel for anything. That’s okay, as they have never really done that for genres in the 21st century, but Arctic Thunder has as tendency to fire all cylinders from the get-go with “Tundra Leech” and keep going at that momentum. It just becomes so obvious by “Burial Bliss” that this is, essentially, what the album is going to be like and stay there throughout.
There’s really not much in terms of dynamics, either. Fenriz generally keeps the drums to a mid, slightly upbeat tempo and keeps pushing the songs forward. “Boreal Fiends” sees the band play with some clean tones here and there, as well as drop the tempo. While this song doesn’t have the hook that “Tundra Leech” possesses, ultimately “Boreal Fiends” sees the band having the most fun as the song goes in. Fenriz’s heavy metal style vocals make their only appearance here, there’s a cowbell as things build up to a wild and slightly off center guitar solo… Not to mention it’s really well composed, too.
But that’s it, really. There’s no crazy twists or turns, nothing to make everyone stop and go “YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM!” Granted, if you like Darkthrone, like traditional black metal, and even 80’s speed metal, Arctic Thunder gives you just that. In comparison, Darkthrone are the Motorhead of black metal: the band can do whatever they want, you can listen to any of their albums, but you know what you’re getting into when you press play. It’s always quality, too. There’s no half-assed riffs or songs, nothing damning, and nothing getting your way, either.
That might the biggest strength of this album: it’s Darkthrone, at the end of the day. Sure, some albums are better than the rest, but they’re generally a good time and a solid investment. Every song is generally entertaining, even if the momentum never really shifts or does anything all that new, but anyone who has enjoyed Darkthrone before can just sit down and enjoy some good, old fashioned black metal for less than forty minutes. Arctic Thunder may not be anything new, per se, but that doesn’t mean Darkthrone are going to be putting out anything bad any time soon, either.
Arctic Thunder is available for purchase right now. Stream the album below.
