DARKTHRONE - Eternal Hails
Peaceville Records
So the last time I said something incredibly good about DARKTHRONE was back in 2007 with their F.O.A.D. album. I thought it was a great hardcore release. Unfortunately Fenriz, via an email, explained to me it was actually a speed metal record and I was totally wrong. So two more decent "speed metal" influenced releases go by and in typical DARKTHRONE form they move on to something else.
So next up we got The Underground Resistance in 2013 which is still boring as fuck. They followed that up by an even worse one called Arctic Thunder from 2016. And then came 2019's Old Star and all I can say to that is am I the only idiot fan who bought that? I mean I'm a DARKTHRONE fan. But seriously I didn't even know that one was out at the time. I was in the music store one day and saw it in the CD racks, marked down off course.
So look yeah I'm a fan. I still love their first album, then their black metal era was amazing. The stuff that came out afterwards was interesting and I already mentioned their "speed metal" foray. But what they (aka: Nocturno Culto and Fenriz) have done since has literally been a tough sale. So now I listen to this latest one and think are DARKTHRONE finished. When I heard the song Peaceville leaked it was like oh they're trying to do the doom thing again.
Eternal Hails is a release that after a few listens you start to feel sympathy for. I mean especially if you're a fan of them as well as what they're doing here. Basically this is another homage to 80's underground metal strained through the band's limited capabilities. In other words you get taken in thinking alright this is cool and then the boredom comes in. Which is kind of fucked up because for decades DARKTHRONE made boredom (aka: repetitive riffing) exciting.
In the end this is DARKTHRONE wanting to be SABBATH, CELTIC FROST and maybe SAINT VITUS, hell maybe a few others. I'll give em props for the low fi production which is a given. But they're just not in the league of who they wanna pretend to sound like. The riffs are boring and the drum work is basic plus Nocturno's vocals are pushed way back in the mix. I've got a buck that say's next time they go death doom. As far as this one goes it's eternal fails.
LISTEN HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iboBawOFhi0
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