ALBUM REVIEW: Eternal Hails – Darkthrone

DARKTHRONE remain one of metal’s worst kept secrets. In extreme metal circles (and even the crust punk scene) their reputation precedes them, and yet they still manage to operate just below mainstream consciousness. Despite having been central figures in the infamous Norwegian black metal dcene, and the progenitors of many of its distinctive features, Gylve ‘Fenriz’ Nagell and Ted ‘Nocturno Culto’ Skjellum are elusive but amiable characters.

While they release albums on a major label, and their logo can be found adorning cut-offs worldwide, there is still something of the underground spirit which lingers in DARKTHRONE. Happily abstaining from live performances, and the media circus which surrounds them, Gylve and Ted have been able to enjoy success on their own terms; leading otherwise conventional lives as postman and teacher respectively. 

Together they have navigated their project away from the black metal trend, with their eyes and ears set firmly on the past instead. The band have worn many hats in the last ten years, as they shift their focus from one of metal’s historic subgenres to the next. For The Underground Resistance they wore their speed metal sombreros, while on Arctic Thunder they reprised some classic sounds in proto-black Panamas. Sporting Brummie flatcaps, their seventeenth full-length Old Star leant on traditional NWOBHM-isms but without forsaking their characteristic grimness. For Eternal Hails, DARKTHRONE have donned their doom metal deerstalkers to explore the vast, cold fringes of their predecessors. 

DARKTHRONE have played with some long songs in the past (the anthemic Leave No Cross Unturned comes to mind) but Eternal Hails pushes the average well above seven minutes a piece. This is riffy but expansive songwriting, which evokes the heavy blues of SAINT VITUS and PENTAGRAM just as much as the grandeur and bleakness of CANDLEMASS. Fenriz often drops out of his mid-tempo grooves to allow tracks their space to breathe, and Nocturno Culto generally manages to play at a restrained speed, using washes of reverb and phaser help to frame tracks rather than dominate them. These are subtle gestures towards doom metal’s soporific misery rather than outright mimicry. Rest assured, Eternal Hails is unmistakably a DARKTHRONE record start to finish. 

Even so, this album definitely takes on more of a character as it proceeds. Side A offers cosy familiarity and platitudes, while Side B leads more into the frosty unknown. It’s Voyage To A Northpole Adrift where DARKTHRONE really manage to slow things down, with a discordant and marching riff reminiscent of Panzerfaust. That cold and lonely atmosphere is cued wonderfully by David A. Hardy’s classic artwork Pluto & Charon which was, incidentally, also used by Greek black metal band ZEPHYROUS which was, incidentally, also the name of DARKTHRONE’s long-departed guitarist. Coincidence? 

Look closely and there’s more. Is the artwork also a reverse-perspective of 1996’s Total Death? That trailing ellipsis looks familiar from BATHORY’s The Return…… (which has its own cosmic cover art), and ‘Eternal Hails’ is just as likely a reference to the tape-trading salutation as it is to disastrous precipitation. It’s easy to forget that Fenriz and Nocturno Culto are just as proficient at writing those sprawling, ominous numbers as they are at playing fast. Album closer Lost Arcane City Of Uppåkra doubles-down on the slow tempo, but offsets it with a chorus straight from the IRON MAIDEN songbook. DARKTHRONE  play the album out with a serene synthesiser solo: an unusual choice on paper, but entirely convincing to the ear.  

DARKTHRONE have long since grown bored of trying to be the most extreme band in the world, but they remain committed to refining the fundamental features of their sound. This is a band who are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeve, but cannot help but sound like themselves whilst doing it. Their eighteenth full-length sees the duo taking on a longer, slower sound; giving traditional doom metal the DAKTHRONE treatment. Eternal Hails is the latest instalment in a faultless series of albums, and another finessed (c)old-school metal record from the legendary Norwegian duo. 

Rating: 9/10

Eternal Hails is out now via Peaceville Records. 

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