Review Summary: Darkthrone take a time machine back to the 80s. Woo!
Darkthrone have sealed a legacy for themselves for their early material, which consists of black metal at some of its purest levels. This deed gained the band appreciation from Black Metal elitists and klvt purists. However, fans of this ‘formerly’ awesome band have been whining and complaining, because the band has been changing their sound over the years to a more punk/tribute-oriented sound that they have been aiming for. Some of these fans have even left the band behind or chose to stay, but to yell at their favorite band to go back to their old sound. Well, I have something to tell these so called ‘fans’; their former klvt black metal band is no longer black metal, and if you don’t like it you can
F.uck O.ff A.nd D.ie.
F.O.A.D. is not a black metal album, which will disappoint the majority of fans, but it still has many black metal/crust punk features to it that makes it not a completely different entity from what the band was before. The repetition in the riffs remains, and also the vocals still have that sort of grim rough bark to them. However, despite all these slight relations to black metal, the band is no longer black metal band at all. They have now taken a route towards a more tribute band/ classic punk/metal format, and it works just great on this album. All the songs have a somewhat enjoyable factor to them, each one catchy and full of history. (“Canadian Metal”, in particular, is about the war in the 80s between American and Canadian Metal bands) Overall, this album is fun if you want to hear some of the past back from the dead.
But sadly, that is where this album’s problems arise; that is all this album is about. It’s all swell that Darkthrone are saluting their supreme metal/punk influences, but they aren’t doing anything new with the sound they already have. I recommend this album to anyone who is looking towards a glimpse of history, but for anyone searching for something new, this maybe one of your last choices.
Recommended:
“Cannadian Metal”
“The Church of Real Metal”
“F.O.A.D. (Title Track)”
