ALBUM REVIEW: Astral Fortress – Darkthrone
For about 35 years, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz have continued to be mainstays in black metal history, with DARKTHRONE being icons of the Norwegian scene that has become infamous, perhaps more-so for the unfortunate fates of their peers. For such a long career, DARKTHRONE would be forgiven for riding the coattails of their own success found on 1992’s A Blaze In The Northern Sky, which placed them as one of the more seminal acts in black metal. Stagnation is no known concept to the duo however, with albums almost seeping out of them like a compulsion. Perhaps this is the result of a band that has, and presumably never will, play live shows (after all, you would have to be a super-super-fan to know every single track of a setlist with a discography this huge).
2022 sees the band on their 20th LP, Astral Fortress. Immediately there is a lack of surprise in the direction of this record, with 2019’s Old Star and last year’s Eternal Hails…… both tuning into a blackened doom while drawing in those 70s hard rock and heavy metal elements. The album is centred around a 10 minute pillar in The Seas Beneath The Seas Of The Sea, which really draws on those chuggy riff-rock fusions, processed through a typical DARKTHRONE formula. The song title, while somewhat ridiculous, is almost a metaphor for the track sonically. It has this repetitive nature that verbose that expands throughout the runtime, chipping away at layers, mining out rocks and gems of grandiloquence. The whole ten minutes is drowned in reverb, quite literally offering a muddy, underwater production to the track, matched with that familiar doom density offered from the band before on tracks such as Voyage To A Northpole Adrift.
Astral Fortress offers up moments of nostalgia on Stalagmite Necklace, with heavy ethereal keyboards that swoop in before welcoming a rock riff that wouldn’t be out of place on a track from the likes of THE RUNAWAYS. There are trips down memory lane into certain DARKTHRONE career eras too, the D-beat influences are brought to light once again on Kevorikan Times, with guitars chugging away like a DISCHARGE track, amping up the album a little in its final stretch.
As the record closes, to an unfamiliar listener, the expectation of a typical black metal record from one of the genre’s most notorious acts should be fully diminished by now. Closing track Eon 2 is completely carried by its guitar parts that start with monotonous intricate riffs that slow into a heavy sludge as those customary doom vocals bellow from beneath the mix. It seems to tip its hat to 2013’s The Underground Resistance with its undeniable trad-metal components.
Astral Fortress holds the same despairing vocals, guttural guitars and stabbing percussion that you’ve heard from DARKTHRONE before. 20 times before, actually. For a band to put out that much music, and still not to have really put out any real sinkers in their discography is something that can’t be said for 95% of artists. However, when this amount of material is churned out so frequently, what cost does this have on the reception? There’s not as much at stake with a new release from DARKTHRONE than that of a typical band who release a full length every few years. The impact is lacking, and not necessarily because it’s not a good musical output, but rather because it’s unlikely that anything will come as much as a surprise. We know that DARKTHRONE have conquered many sub-genres of heavy music, and they’re nothing if not consistent. The sheer amount of music they produce, and good music at that, is commendable.
With that being said, Astral Fortress offers a colder, darker dive into the DARKTHRONE cocktail with more atmospheric blends that have perhaps been left to be desired on their previous two LPs. Instrumentally, this record is much more interesting than last year’s Eternal Hails……, and may be their most well-conceived material since 2013’s The Underground Resistance. Astral Fortress feels more celestial and all-encompassing than anything the band have produced in several years.
Rating: 7/10
Astral Fortress is out now via Peaceville Records.
Like DARKTHRONE on Facebook.