Darkthrone Album: “Plague Wielder”

Format: Full-length cd, 6 songs 42.52 minutes

Style: Raw Black Metal

Rating: 93/100

Label: Moonfog

Artist Website: ...

Similar Artists: Mayhem, Urgehal, Hellhammer, Bathory

Background: Darkthrone began as a death metal band in the early 90s and went on to become one of the most influential black metal bands ever. They epitomized the raw Norse black metal sound and are responsible for some of the most acclaimed releases ever (A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Transilvanian Hunger, Under a Funeral Moon, Panzerfaust). Their previous album, Ravishing Grimness, saw the band combine some of the aggression of their older music with better production, making for one of the best releases of 1999. As has been the case for the last few recordings, Darkthrone consists of Nocturno Culto on vocals, guitars and bass and Fenriz on drums. Additional vocals on the track "Command" are provided by Apollyon (Cadaver Inc) and Sverre Daehli (Aura Noir).

Packaging: The digipack cd that I purchased is well done. It includes all of the lyrics in English, and final incorporates some color in the artwork. The lyrics are very easy to read and the packaging overall is very basic, but this is what you would expect from a Darkthrone cd.

Production: "Plaguewielder" was recorded at StudioStudio studios and was engineered by Dag Stokke. All tracks are produced and written by Darkthrone. The production here is a much more modern than Darkthrone's older classic pieces but the music still remains primitive. The recording has a kind of sterile, icy sound to it, reminding me a little bit of Satyricon's Rebel Extravagana and most of the other releases coming out of Moonfog recently. At the same time it is not nearly as harsh and mechanical sounding as some of these releases, having an almost organic feel to it. You can hear all aspects of the music very well with not one instrument or vocal track drowning out any of the others. I think that the production on this recording is very appropriate and fits well within the Darkthrone aesthetic.

The Music: Darkthrone has developed their sound inside the boundaries of what we know and expect as Darkthrone. This recording has variation in a lot of areas; the tempo of the music (both fast and midpaced), the guitar-style (thrashy at times) and the song structure (longer songs). It is raw and catchy, minimalistic and technical. Consequently, Plaguewielder is a very mature recording; you can tell that this is their tenth release and that they are the elder statesmen of the scene. As is typical with Darkthrone, the lo-fi guitars are the main instrument. The vocals are typical black metal shrieks and are done very well. On this release, the drumming is well timed, making for some real head-banging moments. The bass plods along to the music and can actually be heard quite well. Overall this music delivers what you want in a Darkthrone record. They continue to build on a strong tradition of great black metal releases.

Recommendation: Highly recommended for those who like well played midpaced black metal. If you liked "Ravishing Grimness" you should enjoy this one, as it is not that far removed.

Plaguewielder, another faultless release from the Norwegian lords of cold, bitter darkness. One would think that after so many years they would have lost their edge... no way, not in the slightest. If anything, they have only become better and better.

Hateful lyrics well complemented by Nocturno's vocals, which continue on the path of rasping, growling grimness just as intense as ever.

Plaguewielder seems to follow the path of Ravishing Grimness exuding astonishingly good sound quality. Still undeniably black metal this release also seems to walk along the edge of thrash in some places, which I think adds to brooding angst that radiates from their songs. Still holding true to the unique timing and simple song structure that Darkthrone is famous for this album falls nothing short from impressive.

So pure, so cold, so Darkthrone.

This is an excellent black metal cd. The best i have heard that has came out this year. No band can come close to the coldness and BRILLANT lyrics. hail darkthrone!

This is my second Darkthrone CD that I own, the first one I bought was "Under a Funeral Moon". In comparison to "Under a Funeral Moon" it is very obvious that Darkthrone has progressed as a band since their earlier years. While many black metal elitists would argue that Darkthrone's old, repetitive, primitive, and massively underproduced sound is what made them great, anybody who truly appreciates the music has to admit that this album is great. The production is still not that great, but the music is far more intricate. The songs on this album are about 8 minutes each, and they are all amazing. It is true that you don't get the same totally evil, grim sound that you get from old Darkthrone on this CD, but this album has their older CDs beat in musicianship by far. If you are a true fan of black metal you should still enjoy this even if it isn't quite the same grim black metal sound that they started with.

I am a writer for a Swedish fanzine/magazine, so I got the promo of this CD before it was available in the shops. That means that I've had about six weeks to listen to it. The first couple of times I listened to the album, I liked it a lot, but the more I listen to it now the more I find small details that I want to change.

Soundwise the guitars remind me of Satyricon at times (if you disagree, that's OK. So did Darkthrone drummer Fenriz when I talked to him...); the drumming is perhaps a bit more technical than usual - but the songs are not as good as I had hoped. I had hoped for a return to the more chaotic, icy cold style of black metal that Darkthrone pioneered back in the days. It's a good album, but Darkthrone could do it much better than this. A slight disappointment.