Darkthrone

Of all the major second wave black metal bands to emerge from Norway's fertile breeding grounds during the early 1990s, only a handful -- Mayhem, Emperor, Enslaved, Ulver -- have achieved the same exalted status and world-wide recognition as the legendary Darkthrone; and arguably none has been as consistent or prolific in the decades that followed. Unlike the majority of their peers, Darkthrone largely refused to tinker with their refreshingly straightforward and savage black metal formula once it was established, leaving it to others to evolve the genre into astonishingly eclectic directions, ranging from the symphonic to the avant-garde, and even beyond the boundaries of heavy metal itself. Instead, for Darkthrone's longstanding central duo, Nocturno Culto (vocals, guitar, bass) and Fenriz (drums), the aesthetic preservation and ongoing exploration of their chosen style's intentionally raw and unsophisticated original template has been a career-long obsession, and this has arguably established their legacy as black metal's most reliable driving force. But it didn't start out that way, of course -- not by a long shot -- since, after adopting the Darkthrone moniker in 1987 (previously, they were prophetically named "Black Death"), vocalist/guitarist Nocturno Culto (née Ted Skjellum), guitarist Zephyrous, bassist Dag Nilsen, and drummer Fenriz (Gylve Nagell) were writing death metal songs! Based in the Oslo suburb of Kolbotn, the fledgling group recorded four demo tapes over the next couple of years (Land of Frost, A New Dimension, Thulcandra, and Cromlech) and was eventually signed by England's Peaceville Records, for whom they recorded their 1991 debut, Soulside Journey. As suggested earlier, this contained technical death metal in a similar vein to then dominant...