DARKTHRONE Soulside Journey CD (1991)

Before the corpse paint, before A Blaze in the Northern Sky rewrote the rulebook, Darkthrone were doing something altogether stranger. Soulside Journey is the death metal record they made before they decided death metal wasn't cold enough.

Released in 1991, this is Darkthrone in transition, heavily influenced by Autopsy and early Possessed but already carrying that Norwegian bleakness that would define everything they touched afterward. It's a genuinely great death metal album that the black metal mythology tends to bury, which means most people who pick it up are surprised by how good it actually is. Nocturno Culto and Fenriz were always going to be legends, but this is where you can hear them figuring out exactly what kind of legends they wanted to be. Essential for anyone doing a proper Darkthrone deep dive, and a strong entry point into the Norwegian extreme metal underground for the uninitiated.

2001 pressing. Full length album on CD jewel case. Country of origin: Norway. Genre: Black Metal / Death Metal.

Fans of: Autopsy, Mayhem, Obituary, early Possessed, Entombed