DARKTHRONE Eternal Hails CD (2021)

Darkthrone have been doing whatever they want since approximately 1988, and at this point they've outlasted every trend, every scene war, and every journalist who declared black metal dead. Eternal Hails is their argument for doom-drenched slow burn over blast beats, and it's a convincing one.

Released in 2021, this record pulls hard from 70s heavy metal, early doom, and the kind of murky production choices that Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have always trusted their own ears on. It's not Transilvanian Hunger and it's not trying to be. This is a band in their fourth decade making music on their own terms, which in the context of black metal history is either the most punk thing imaginable or just completely expected from Darkthrone. Either way it rules. Essential for anyone building a serious dark metal collection.

Format: CD. Full length album. Country of origin: Norway. Genre: Black/death/speed metal.

Fans of: Bathory, Immortal, Gorgoroth, Taake, Burzum, Mayhem, Venom.