Review Summary: Getting old. Real old.
Pre-Historic Metal is the new album from Norwegian black metal fossils themselves, Darkthrone. This is their 21st studio album, marking 40 years of existence. 4 decades of corpse paint, beers, and Fenriz being the most un-serious dude In Black Metal.
This is actually the first Darkthrone release I’ve properly checked in with in quite a while, and apparently their recent output has leaned more mid-tempo and lukewarm… but not this one. For the big 4-0 anniversary, they’ve gone full caveman mode and got primal riffs coming out their asses. These tracks are full of chunky, classic style riffing. Even though Darkthrone are legends themselves, they are clearly having a ball paying tribute to the bands who inspired them, as we get guitar playing that'll instantly remind you of Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost, Diamond Head and even early Metallica. Take the opener,
'They Found One Of My Graves', where the main riff is very 'Search And Destroy'-esque, and I do mean all of this in a good way. I also really dig the spacey dungeon synths at the end of this opener which give it a bit of psychedelic doom flair.
The title track stomps around with bendy thrash riffs, and honestly- I’m kinda loving Fenriz’s vocals on this album. They’re unhinged, theatrical, and completely un-serious — because at this point, these dudes just don’t give a ***. They meet up every couple of years in a cabin in the woods, crack open a pack of beers, hit record, and just go for it. You can hear that energy all over the album — especially in the vocal snippets they intentionally leave in (the “REALLY?!” at the end of
“Deeply Rooted” got me). And also - just look at this ***ing album cover.
You've got to respect the duo’s adherence to old school, raw, recorded-in-a-garage production style, while most legacy band have naturally moved to modern clean production.
'Siberian Thaw' hits a slower, doom-ier style track that is pure Candlemass worship. Again I got a kick out of the vocals chants of
'Siberian Thaw', Siberian Thaw' over and over, while they lay down thick riffs that'd make Tommy Iommi proud.
'The Dry Wells of Hell' continues the Mercyful Fate tribute act complete with Fenriz even hitting some King Diamond-eqsue falsetto highs. The one curveball is
'I Marched To The Sunken Empire', an atmospheric and cavernous piece of dungeon synth, which then proceeds to the 2 closing tracks, which are relatively straight forward rockers.
This is pure dumb caveman metal to just turn your brain off to, don't over think it, just kick back and enjoy some brontosaurus-sized riffs. Its a tight tracklist of 8 songs that don't overstay its welcome. These guys clearly had a lot of fun making this and you'll have fun listening to it too.
Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MctFzuYa33I
