The mid nineteen nineties were a real bitch for Darkthrone. After the release of Panzerfaust and Goatlord, fans of Darkthrone weren’t expecting much from their heroic black metal band anymore. Noctrno Culto’s voice had declined sharply, and so had just about everything else. Despite this, 1996’s Total Death was the final shimmer of light from the talented band, before being sealed in the darkness of mediocrity.
Early Darkthrone was had a fairly fast pace due to the early death metal influences that they contained, but this release is completely devoid of any influence other than black metal. The guitars, in their fuzzy glory, play simplistic yet effectively dark riffs, while Fenriz’s drumming succeeds in keeping a the beat in a respectable fashion throughout the album, which is something I could say for some of black metal’s more blast beat oriented drummers. The album speed is fairly slow, almost doom-like, but succeeds in that area far better than Goatlord. Sure, Nocturno’s vocals are still rather bad, but they fit the music perfectly, in their croaky goodness.
Total Death is far from perfect, the album is too long, the music is too simple, and the band really isn’t at their height here. One thing that can be said about this album though is that it is a mark of slight change for Darkthrone. The music is slower, more black metal, while the atmosphere is still piercing black. In the world of Darkthrone releases, Total Death is slightly above average. |
