Review Summary: The same old thrones, and the embracing of doom.
The creativity of the Norwegian veterans seems endless. As time passed, the famous black metal duo got farther and farther from their purer, Norwegian black metal style that made them famous in the 90s. With each subsequent release, they explored more and more territories of metal (and sometimes punk), following no trends, just their true passion and deep love for the old-school.
Eternal Hails is their
nineteenth studio album in thirty-four years, and in this record, the sound continuance of 2019's
Old Star resulted in more than just fourty minutes of nostalgic riffing.
Even the beginnings of
Eternal Hails sound unusual and alien from what would be expected from a Darkthrone song. First, a very psychedelic-sounding,
clean guitar melody greets the listener in “His Masters Voice”, which later turns into an old-school heavy metal riff orgy with additional proto-doom sections (something that wouldn't be too out of place on a Witchfinder General record), and parts resembling their most aggressive riffs since 2003-2004. These mid-era stylistics got even more dominant in the middle of the album, take the record's third track for example:, “Wake of the Awakened”, feels like a bonus track from the
Plaguewielder or
Hate Them era. This becomes especially clear when comparing it to a song like “***ed Up and Ready to Die”, which was fueled by an almost identical main riff and tempo. This isn’t an exact resurrection of their earlier style, since generally
Eternal Hails has a very unique atmosphere and a special vintage touch. The source of which is rooted in the album’s production. The final product from Chaka Khan Studio is as nostalgic as possible, since they masterfully copied the aesthetics of various proto-doom bands. For example, they perfectly imitated the organic and super tight drum sound of Trouble’s second album,
The Skull, and the guitar tone bore the characteristics of Saint Vitus’ debut and Black Sabbath’s
Master of Reality. Next to these, it is important to mention how Darkthrone’s special “blackening” flavour contributed to the album’s atmosphere, as the previously mentioned aggressive mid-era style riffing and Nocturno Culto’s unmissable harsh vocals were key factors shaping their old-school-worship into a Darkthrone album.
That’s not everything they could offer in
Eternal Hails! Darkthrone’s latest had some extra tricks in the bag, which were mildly surprising from them. In the first place, the really doomy, psychedelic clean guitars were great new additions to their sonical profile, but there is another thing which was the most striking thing to hear in a Darkthrone album (in the most positive way):
synths. It was really interesting to witness how easily they inserted this new layer into their sound. By adding some extra flavour to tracks like “Wake of the Awakened” and “Lost Arcane City of Uppakra'' these old-school, spacey synths result in a rather obscure and ethereal sounding doom song. Looking back, this stands as a unique moment in the band's extensive discography. I found this an especially noteworthy experiment since they’ve never really aimed for inducing this kind of atmospheric element into their style before. This kind of experimentation wasn't an entirely strange thing to hear for them. For example, Nocturno Culto is known for experimenting on familiar soundscapes with his other band (Sarke), and Fenriz has his own history with ambient music as well (see his solo project: Neptune Towers). Personally I think it was an excellent idea to bring this approach to Darkthrone, not just because it felt fitting, but it was an exciting musical experience.
Lately Fenriz talked about his deep love for doom, which undoubtedly had a very strong impact on the album, and probably as a consequence,
Eternal Hails is the doomiest Darkthrone record to date. On the other hand, Nocturno Culto was always known for preferring writing faster and punchier songs, and as they split the songwriting tasks between each other, it is pretty easy to distinguish their fingerprints on each song. Which is not a bad thing at all, since this kind of duality and variance made the record more colorful and living.
In
Eternal Hails, Darkthrone have explored more new territories, and have successfully evolved their sound.
Eternal Hails is a retrospective voyage to the early ages of doom metal, and despite the album might sound vintage, it's modern day flourishes help get it over the finish line. Frankly, it’s a job well done.
