In this series we look back into the year 2013 by reviewing an album from this year every other week.
To talk about the fifteenth album by Norwegian band Darkthrone, a short excursion into the past helps to establish the context. After they released their Blackened Metal Punk banger „Sardonic Wrath“ in 2004, the band signed a new contract with Peaceville Records. Between 2006 and 2010, Darkthrone released four albums that can predominantly be located somewhere within the musical realms of Crust Punk, Hardcore Punk, Black Metal, and that ineffable Darkthrone sound. Then, after the longest break between two full-length releases since the 1990s, something completely new emerged from the dark and frostbitten Norwegian woods – this is „The Underground Resistance“.
Die-hard fans may hate this album since it clearly marks the point when Nocturno Culto and Fenriz finally turned their back on „Transilvanian Hunger“-style Black Metal. Instead, they approached Heavy and Thrash Metal more than ever before which is why this album is often compared to King Diamond releases. And even though it might take two or three listening sessions, at some point one realizes how much fun the Norwegian duo must have heard when producing this forty-minute beast.
„The Underground Resistance“ is full of self-reflection and irony. By taking on themselves and on the Metal scene as a whole, Darkthrone have produced an honest and great Metal album. The track ‚Leave no Cross unturned‘ alone overshadows decades of blasphemous Black Metal.
Next up in this series: Ana Popović – Can you stand the Heat
