Yep, exclusive to Antihumanism.com, we’ve got the skinny on Darkthrone’s new audio turd.

See below for a full track from their new album, “Total Deaf” (uploaded to youtube for convenience and so you won’t have this crap saved onto your hard drive).

Tracklisting:

1. No feelings (no ideas)
2. Nostalgic nerd
3. Rehashed trash
4. Mailsorting post office punks
5. Park benches and cheap slags
6. Fuck Off and Buy
7. Total contempt, norse norse norse

Lyric excerpt:

“No Feelings (No Ideas)” from the album “Total Deaf” (Peaceville 2009)

No feelings inhabit my dark soul
No feelings, just Rock ’n’ Roll
I can’t think of anything to say
But I’ll fucking say it anyway
…
No feelings
Dead inside
No feelings
Like I died
No feelings
Hide the tears
No feelings
No ideas

Thanks to Cargést

Some of you may sadly remember a highly derivative and tedious US black metal band called Ritual who released some stuff on Wild Rags a few years back. Probably most of you who’ve actually heard of them only know them through a Xasthur cover version, which was just as dreary as the original.

At the time of their activity the band were derided for their laughable attempts to not only copy the Norwegian bands in sound, but also in action. But whereas the Norwegian bands made supreme music and burned churches, Ritual only made dire music that had next to no connection with the music of Immortal, Burzum et al beyond shallow surface aesthetic, paving the way for hordes of other hopeless “me too” black metal. And their “heinous, shocking crime” that they still make so much of today was to merely spray graffiti on a church like some retarded ghetto kid from a broken home.  

Anyway, we got wind recently (a distinctly pooey wind) that the mediocre fools were back in action, and trying to reinvent the past with themselves as some sort of “cult” and “legendary” band, ho ho. So it seemed only right that we subject them to our usual rigorous interview process!

1) Are you still spraypainting churches in a rather dismal attempt at emulating the Norwegians?

(A) If I were to vandalize churches these days. I would spray paint violent bible passages so that believers would question the insanity of the book they follow. True Satanism/Luciferianism is a spiritual rebellion and not against Christians, but rather the restrictions placed on the mind by their beliefs. We seek to transform the individual through magick into something better. The Norwegian kings sold out for more wealth and their mothers were tired of seeing their sons killed in battle. Returning to their Pagan past would never work because they would sell out again.

2) I take it you’re working on new material, is it as boring and generic as the debut?

(A) Generic compared to what? The sell out Life Metal being released every week! Ritual’s debut is considered a classic. You obvioulsy were not around to appreciate it back in the day and compare to the countless clone bands of today. The new material will be unlike anything heard as it follows no rulebook and brings many new sounds and atmospheres into the songcraft.

3) Are you going to keep making a big deal out of the vague Xasthur connection for promotional purposes and so as to interest hipsters in your music?

(A) Hipsters are fair weather fans and we don’t have enough emo parts to our music for them so no. Xasthur has covered Ritual and has been a friend for 15 years. We simply listed every ex member of the band and their work outside of the band so no one would bitch. Are you a fan or an internet tough guy? I’ve faced numerous attempts on my life in prison and would gladly print my address for you to ask me these questions in person if you’d like.

4) Are you going to fix the Ritual logo so that it actually works on a black background? The wing is fucked at the moment because you’ve just made it a negative image, you see.

(A) That is the site created by Ian Fleming (guitarist). I’m not aware of the wing being fucked up but I will take a look at it. Are you going to fix your myspace page and add more than 24 people and post a picture of yourself so I can buy you a drink when we meet? I’m sure this is some jealous asshole from the past who never made any music of his own.

5) Any last words?

(A) Do you have any last words?

Well, seeing as you ask:

1) Don’t believe the inevitable hype kids, Ritual’s debut was NEVER considered a classic album. Sure, it gained them a brief popularity due to being in the right place at the right time (the mid-90s when black metal became increasingly popular and therefore eventually populist in outlook, and in the relatively black metal-free US). Ritual were one of the earliest bands from the US to start cloning the Norwegians and they even failed at that. Ritual were soon forgotten once I Shalt Become achieved Ritual’s pathetically low ambitions far more successfully. People who knew the US underground at that time were aware of acts like Havohej and Profanatica, you know, bands that actually had their own voice and good music and stuff. So Ritual were ever so slightly redundant even then.
The band later came back to people’s attention after a Xasthur cover version, much like how Nargaroth brought a couple of forgotten mediocre bands like Lord Foul into the kvlt limelight. They were quickly forgotten again however, as the music was DULL and BORING.

2) Accusing us of being “internet toughguys” seems a bit rich coming from someone who goes on to utter this classic of keyboard warriorism: “I’ve faced numerous attempts on my life in prison and would gladly print my address for you to ask me these questions in person if you’d like.”

3) You’d think someone stupid enough to spraypaint their own band logo on a church and expect not to get caught would be somewhat embarrassed of their actions. But not Ritual, they’ve tried to build a career out of it. Hilariously, the official Ritual myspace now classes the band as “Criminal Black Metal”, even going so far as to print t-shirts bearing this idiotic slogan. Yo nigga, Ritual in da house!!! We done time for dat badass spraypaint job we did on a church! Dat makes us fuckin’ tuff!!!! And not at all stoopid! Hip hop gangsta black metuhl muthafuckas!!!!

A representative of the band then contacted us again with a further message with a link to the Ritual myspace page, as if to placate us or make us change our minds:

“This is the real Ritual page established by the creator of the band Robert 1993. Ian has created a page of his own and may write music here and there as he is busy with other projects non related to Black Metal. New Ritual music is on display here. If you don’t like it so be it.”

Amen!

German born artist Johann Joachim Püschel claims that the designer of Mayhem’s iconic logo plagiarised a detail from his work, The Keeper of the Infernal City, that he engraved way back in the mid 18th century.

During a chance encounter with founding member Euronymous in the afterlife, Püschel recognised the batwings on the deceased guitarist’s Mayhem logo t-shirt as being eerily familiar.

He told us: “I saw zis strange longhaired midget standink in ze dark corner of der avterlife with ein schwarz candle all drippink wax on his hand. He vass vearing a garment of clothink emblazoned with vot looked like ein detail from mein artvork. I demanded to be knowink from vhere he haf obtained der garment from. Der svine dropped der schwarz candle und ran avay screamink like ein girl.”

The dead kraut artist continued, “but then I am bumpink into notorious evil kinder vinkle-touchink dancer Michael Jackson, who ist tellink me der logo was ov his favourite musik group – ein schwarz metals band from Norvay called Mayhem.” 

Speaking from his ivy and moss covered grave yesterday, Püschel’s badly decomposed skeleton slammed the cult black metal band: “das designer of der Mayhem logo haf totally ripped off mein engravink of a demon that I haf painstakingly engraved in der year of der lord 1755. If you are lookink closely, der wings are almost exackly der same. Ach! The svinehund!”

Having recruited a lawyer specialising in back-from-the-dead-artist-and-underground-metal-band-logo-plagiarism claims to represent his case, Püschel now hopes to get his bony hands on several ten’s of euros backdated to the mid-1980’s which he believes are owed to him.

In response, the original designer of Mayhem’s logo, “Nella”, issued a flustered statement from his woodland cabin in Norway: “This is complete bullshit, I have no idea who the hell this Johann dude even is and I’ve never met this Keeper of the Infernal City guy either. Anyway how can he sue me or Mayhem if he’s dead? Things might be different in the afterlife and Germany but there’s a law against that in Norway.”

A spokesman for Mayhem’s record label told us that the band were too drunk on their own sense of self-satisfied smugness and artistic bankruptcy to make any comment on the subject whatsoever, though it’s understood that Hellhammer confirmed he would indeed play the drums “for any cunt wot asks me, yeah?”

However, a representative of the Centre for Hessian Studies defended the adaptation of the 18th century artwork in Mayhem’s logo: “metal music like that of the old Mayhem (pre-1994) harks back to a time before the comfortable and safe plastic world of today. Like Püschel’s engraving, it depicts and even glorifies the horrific and fantastic to stimulate our dormant imaginations and so that we might remember to appreciate existence to its fullest extent, no matter how harsh the reality may be.”

Typical brainless Michael Jackson fan’s twitter/blog etc comment: “may God bless you in Heaven! Michael Jackson, forever king of pop”.

Typical kvlt black metal kiddie’s twitter/blog etc comment: “may Satan’s blackwinged angels guide you to the infernal realm! Steingrim Torson, forever king of darkness”.

Since 1993, black metal has been full of laughable people wanting to be the next icons of the scene (that latter word pronounced with an effeminate lisp) as an ego boost and affirmation of importance and self-worth. Most try to impose this dubious honour on themselves by acting in a manner likely to be perceived as “kvlt” by the kidz and those of low intelligence. Still others face attempts to have it imposed on them by outside parties desperate to be part of something they believe to be cool.

One individual I recall being eager to be crowned “king of black metal” was Paul “Typhon” Thind of notorious alleged rip-off label Necropolis (or Negropolis as some later dubbed them). Probably most famous for releasing the Nordic Metal CD in tribute to Euronymous, Thind made much of his tenuous connections to the glamour of the Norwegian movement, mostly for various money making schemes and enticing bands to work with his “Norway-approved” label.

Claiming a close kinship with Oystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, he felt entitled to a special place in the growing (and soon to be quickly decreasing in quality) black metal scene. Of course, his “closeness” was nothing of the sort, Aarseth being eager to write to anyone who wrote to him especially if it meant possible new avenues of promotion and distribution for “his” bands.

The fact that the Nordic Metal CD was released on Thind’s young label was a matter of mere business expediency than anything else. A compilation CD had already been planned with most of the artists who eventually appeared on the tribute album. Thind couldn’t resist the opportunity of declaring in the Nordic Metal booklet that “Euronymous’s memory has spawned an entire series”, a thinly veiled proposed business plan attempting to cash in on the death of his “brother”. The series of compilation albums did not take off however, though the original tribute sold well and exposed many to the Scandinavian style of black metal.

Thind’s label lasted several more years until collapse, surrounded by rumours and tales of swindling, rip-offing, talking in a fake British accent (no one knows why Thind adopted this, possibly he was coming out of the closet) and declaring himself king of US black metal, to much amusement. His whereabouts are currently unknown, though it seems unlikely that he sits atop a throne of skulls being sucked off by satanic sluts wearing a crown made from the melted down mastertapes of “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” and “The Return”.  

And then we have the unfortunates who find themselves being put forward as new icons of this once potent music. Of course, this is rarely out of any real adulation for the individual as such, but more as a vicarious means of being involved in something “significant”. Usually those responsible for this nonsense became involved with black metal well after the blood fire death of the early 1990s and as such feel they somehow missed out on the genre’s defining non-musical events. By “defining”, I mean in terms of the mainstream media perception, from which the majority of modern black metal listeners derive their flawed understanding of the genre in the first place.

One such potential icon is of course Jon Nodtveidt of Dissection, but another more recent example is Steingrim “Shotgun Gutsfuck” Torson of Celestial Bloodshed and numerous other 2nd rate new wave of vaguely-alright-I-suppose Norwegian black metal bands.   

Even before his absurd accidental death at the hands of a friend, Torson’s bands and those of his close colleagues were hailed and hyped as the “next big thing” by scenester types, eager for Norway to produce something half-decent again so they can say in later years that they “were there” when it all went down. Or at least, that they were posting comments on blabbermouth when this massive non-event took place.

When news spread of Torson’s violent death, these desperate people clasped their hands together with joy as they hoped that finally the kvlt crowd-appeasing era of black metal had its very own Dead or Euronymous figure. This needy and pathetic desire for new icons to venerate quickly began to manifest itself in the actions of numberless aimless morons.

In various blogs, myspace profiles, facebook groups and forums, idiots are making cute little photoshopped In Memoriam (using Latin instead of the plainer “in memory” is more kvlt) pictures much like “bereaved” Michael Jackson fans are doing, because their lives are empty and need injecting with surrogate meaning. The crowd are always the same, no matter if they make their icon a not especially talented singer with a gruesome white face or a… well, you get the picture.

Footnote 28.07.2009 – Since this article was published several of you have written in ”to confirm” that Necropolis Records did indeed “rip you off” and that there’s nothing “alleged” about it.

Well, aside from the fact that it has little or nothing to do with the article, I’d like to state that I couldn’t care less about you losing $15 over 10 years ago, which probably helped to fund a few good albums anyway.

Though Thind was undoubtedly a somewhat absurd and ridiculous character (thus why I used him to illustrate a point), his label did at least release a handful of classic releases, which is more than can be said for most record labels nowadays, “rip off” or not.

Morgan Steinmeyer Hakansson, guitarist and founder-member of Swedish black metal band Marduk, wistfully blew a smoke ring into the air, contemplating the fine curves of his Harley Davidson from the lounge window. With a sigh he stubbed out his cigar and drained two fingers of whisky as he sat heavily into a dark leather armchair, dislodging a signed Pantera CD from the armrest with a clatter. That cunt Satyr had left it at his house after Frost’s birthday party (it read: TO MY MATEY SATEY, HEIL HITLER, LOVE PHIL with a badly drawn swastika underneath). He felt down the side of the chair and found a little marzipan demon – all that remained of the cake he’d carefully baked the day before. Of course, Frost had been drunk and had wiped his limp penis all over the icing, the ungrateful dubiously gendered twat. Morgan closed his eyes and sank deep into thought as he usually did at this time of day.

It wasn’t fair. He’d done everything he could to make Marduk what it was, admittedly more through sheer bloody-minded persistence than any real discernable talent, and deep down he knew that it had never been enough. Sure, they had a relatively big fanbase and made a more than comfortable living from their music, but most of their fans were total idiots and there was always the nagging doubt that they were far from equal amongst their contemporaries. Ivar from Enslaved had pissed all over Morgan’s shoes on tour once and on demanding an apology, Ivar simply farted and walked away without a word.

The likes of Emperor, Darkthrone, Mayhem, or those freewilly fuckers in Enslaved had all quickly started making crappy albums after 1995 or so, but at one point they had all released bonafide, influential classics hailed to this day by sensible metal fans the world over. Where was Marduk’s classic album? Morgan sighed again and thought back to the early days of the band, trying to figure out for the millionth time where he’d gone wrong.

With the original (failed) intention to form “the most blasphemous band in the world”, Marduk started off playing death metal as most soon-to-be black metal bands did in those times. They relatively quickly signed to a record label and a young Morgan felt his blasphemous (tee hee!) band was really going somewhere. But doubts had already formed in his mind even before the release of ‘Dark Endless’ in December 1992, as he realised Marduk’s form of death metal was outmoded, generic and uninspired. It added nothing to a burgeoning genre that had already seen the release of absolute timeless classics (that damned word again, Morgan thought) like Deicide’s first album and then the legendary ‘Legion’ six months before Marduk’s own lame debut. Not to mention Morbid Angel’s ‘Blessed are the Sick’, released a year earlier. Morgan could hear the precise writhing riffage of Trey Azagthoth and Richard Brunelle playing dimly in his head and wished he could completely erase his own sub-standard first effort ‘Dark Endless’ from the dank corner of his memory where it sat, mocking him with its garishly painted cyclopean eye.

Still, those stupid Americans could keep their death metal, black metal was where it was at in Northern Europe and Marduk could become legendary in that revitalised genre instead! So Morgan quickly began the writing of material for ‘Those of the Unlight’, a black metal masterpiece that would seal Marduk’s place forever in the… oh shit. Already those Norwegian wankers Burzum, Immortal and Darkthrone had released veritable milestones in metal, making ‘Those of the Unlight’ look almost totally redundant by the time of its release in 1993. Yet again, others were taking giant leaps in innovation and evolution while Marduk slowly plodded along behind like the class retard on a school trip.

Frustrated and depressed with his lack of acclaim and feeling left out of the media furore surrounding the death of Euronymous and various other events, Morgan strove to create a truly dark and furious recording more in the vein of his Norwegian neighbours. With ‘Opus Nocturne’ he hoped he could create an album to finally raise Marduk to what he saw as their (his) rightful place in the black metal pantheon. Working as he’d never worked before, Hakansson finally saw the release of his masterpiece in December 1994. It was the absolute best he could do, he’d literally burnt himself out creatively giving birth to the album and… it fell short by quite a way. Although it was easily Marduk’s best album so far (and remains so to this day), it was also occasionally verging on being unadventurously simplistic, unambitious and lacking the genius intensity, compositional awareness, epic vision and mystical atmosphere of several key albums from around that time: ‘Pure Holocaust’, ‘Transilvanian Hunger’, ‘Hvis Lyset Tar Oss’, ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ and ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’. In short, despite their best efforts Marduk had yet again failed to meet the standards set by others and Morgan had nothing left to offer.

At this point, despite having made a half decent album, Hakansson was at his lowest and felt a great ineffectual angsty rage building inside of him. The whole world should be made to suffer for not bowing to the might of Marduk, he seethed. In frustration he began to write even simpler, angrier music for a new album which after a great deal of thought he decided to call ‘Fucking Fuck Off You Ungrateful Scum We’ll Kill You All’. Arranging the artwork, Morgan requested that it depicted an army of loyal Marduk fans all bearing official Marduk merchandise emblem shields, preparing to attack those failing to appreciate his beloved band. The other members were somewhat sceptical about this and in particular took issue with the title, suggesting instead the only slightly less impotent rage sounding ‘Heaven Shall Burn When We Are Gathered’. Morgan sulkily accepted this compromise, retaining the naff artwork, though in later years with a clearer head it was altered to something more kvlt for the reissue, along with that of ‘Dark Endless’. He at least had the last laugh over that stupid eye!

And so, after good album sales of ‘Heaven Shall Burn…” Hakansson realised the key to the band’s future commercial success: lowest common denominator appeal. Fuck trying to create something meaningful, he could attain respect and a real position of authority by appeasing the tastes of people who vaguely liked the idea of black metal but couldn’t stomach the intricate complexities of its leading artists. He would write “extreme” and “br00tuhl” music so bland, so dull and generic that even a Cannibal Corpse or Pantera fan could get into it, with a bit of luck. Add a bit of black metal cliché lyrics / imagery and voila, easily accessible pseudo-black metal for the peasants to enjoy and throw money at so they can be part of it.

With each new Marduk album released, their popularity increased exponentially and Morgan laughed to himself as he thought how much easier it was to lower black metal for the consumption of idiots than try to equal the achievements of his contemporaries as he’d attempted back in 1994. After releasing ‘Panzer Division Marduk’ in 1999, the culmination of his tried and tested “duh duh duh duh at 350BPM” technique, it dawned on him that even the most brainless Marduk fan was slowly realising how limited their music actually was. As he began to believe his own hype and buoyed with a false sense of his own greatness Hakansson made an attempt at a “heavy”, slower record to counterbalance what had tediously gone before. It failed utterly. His grunting monkey fanbase wanted something fast and broootuuuhl and no one else even cared anymore. The only thing he could think of doing was to go back to what Marduk did best, yet conceal it behind a gimmick of some kind. All it had to do was serve as a distraction for the majority of moronic modern black metal listeners, which wouldn’t prove too difficult. At first he flirted with the idea of a science fiction themed album called ‘Star Destroyer Marduk’, where the war film samples on “Panzer Division…” would simply be replaced with Star Wars sound effects. But as it turned out, he discovered an even better solution to his problem, and it would also provide Marduk with the scene credibility Morgan had so longed for all these years, no matter how artificial and fleeting it would eventually prove to be.

Of course, he had known Belfagor of Ofermod for years, here was someone who had actually looked up to Hakansson and hung out with the band trying to look cool, an impressionable kid who’d even formed a band, Nefandus, to try and impress him. Later, Morgan had heard the kid’s EP, Ofermod’s ‘Mysterion Tes Anomias’ and felt a surge of panic. It was nothing amazing, it was just above average “Swedish black metal” ™, but it showed that there was a potential rival to Marduk’s position as kings of not-quite-good-enough. Then, a few years later many younger Swedish bands claimed to have been largely influenced by Ofermod’s “religious black metal”, much to Morgan’s chagrin and hurt feelings.

One of these bands in particular held Hakansson’s attention, a kvlt underground entity known as Fragrant Mist. He listened to their debut full-length album ‘Salvation’ with both awe and intense jealousy. Yet again, it was nothing really worth listening to, its genericism was cleverly hidden amongst production techniques, effects, samples and some absurdly over-the-top vocals, but that was where its genius lay, Morgan thought. This album could indeed be Marduk’s salvation. He quickly got hold of Fragrant Mist’s mainman Arioch and outlined his plans for a born again Marduk. Arioch would be to Marduk what Dead had been to Mayhem, and as such Arioch even changed his name to Mortuus, or “Dead” in the kvltest language of all: Latin. Lyrical / album concepts mostly changed to overtly religious ones and when combined with production techniques, effects, samples and those over-the-top vocals concealed the fact that underneath it all lay the same old Marduk that everyone knew and loathed. Unlike Dead-era Mayhem, Mortuus-era Marduk simply became Fragrant Mist-lite, yet were a major band with the underground credibility of having a kvlt personality as vocalist. Morgan rubbed his hands with glee as he contemplated the new glorious era for Marduk that awaited him…           
   
Morgan opened his eyes with a start as Mortuus nudged him gently.
“Thou must awaken,” said Mortuus, “verily I say unto thee, we hath many dreary and generic riffs of various genre origins to compose and fit into thy patented template for thy new opus, before entering ye studio and speed tremolo picking an angry faux-black metal song out of it. I thinketh the new album should be christened ‘Korinthianzzz PraYer Ritual Angel ov Poo’. I heareth that the cooleth thing in the scene now is scatoliturgical misspelt album titles. Amen”.
“Fucking hell I hate you,” said Morgan wearily.

Epilogue:

Satyr and Frost announced their engagement in 2007, marrying a year later in the ancient spectre ruins inspired by overflowing medieval belief and vikings and shit. A majestetic hail in honour of Peter Tatchell and their spiritual brothers in Stonewall. Hail Satan!

Mortuus / Arioch released a nu-black metal album with his religious circus troupe Fragrant Mist called ‘Maranatha’ in 2009. It is already considered black metal’s answer to Sepultura’s ‘Roots’ by many metal fans.

Morgan Hakansson continues to release Marduk albums tailored to the current middle-of-the-road “extreme metal” prevailing trends at a rate of one per financial year, to general apathy. Merchandise sales are doing well, with plans to release official Marduk plastic swords and shields bearing their logo in 2010.

Having failed to recapture the magic of their early to mid 90’s heyday with lifeless and boring albums like “Ravishing Grimness” and “Plaguewielder”, Darkthrone realised they had to do something different in order to disguise the fact that they were an utterly spent force.

With all the thousands of bands copying their 90’s black metal style, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto decided to go back to their early youth and make novelty albums combining all their favourite 80’s metal bits into one easily digestible and forgettable meal of putrid mush.
“This’ll be really cool,” Fenriz thought. “We can have our own generic Eddie figure on the album covers, use silly song titles and have a real laugh while making money off of hipsters so as I don’t have to go and work in the post office again. Yeah, that’ll be totally boss.”

“Dark Thrones and Black Flags” (cute title by the way) continues where “F.O.A.D.” left off, in other words, by insulting the intelligence of metallers and delighting the irony-o-meters of hipsters with its self-referential, catchy punk metal that makes a lot of noise but says nothing. Each track zips by in a low production breeze of self-satisfied smugness (we could do better than this but we don’t care anymore), barely registering on the listener’s consciousness, much like pop music.

Whereas Darkthrone’s classic albums took their influences and remolded them into something new and evolving, here Fenriz and company are like babies playing with their own faeces. “Remember when this was Deathstrike?” 2 month old Fenriz says, his hands cupping some green sludge, “somehow it’s turned into poo. Oh well who cares, let’s send it to Peaceville, they can polish it up and sell it.”

Avoid this album at all costs. Having this CD on your shelf is the same as having a row of Star Wars toys in your bedroom. “Don’t you get it? It’s nostalgic and ironic.” Go die, as Fenriz would say.

Fenriz, drummer and songwriter with legendary Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone, yesterday issued a brief statement to Antihumanism.com via the band’s official myspace page.

In it, he angrily claimed that we were wrong for insisting seminal Darkthrone albums such as “Under a Funeral Moon” are far superior to more recent gimmicky efforts like “F.O.A.D.”.

He went on to state that he wrote and recorded the influential masterpiece, “Transilvanian Hunger”, in just two weeks, whereas it now took him two or three months to write a single track for poorly conceived travesties like “Dark Thrones and Black Flags”. ’90s black metal is easy and more or less for little kids’, he added.

Finally, in a John McEnroe style outburst of childish boo-hooing, he demanded that we ‘go die’.
 
In response, Antihumanism.com would like to say that, like Tom G. Warrior once did (before he saw sense), Fenriz has forgotten that it was the incredible and visionary music of his early years that founded his reputation and status in the international metal scene.
It is those classic albums that have remained firm favourites since the early 1990’s, while their latest releases will quickly fade into nothingness by 2010, once the novelty has worn off.

But while he still has new product to shift, Fenriz will sadly continue to dismiss his early work as mere juvenalia, rather than admit that he lost his way artistically many years ago.

There will be those who claim in their defence that ‘Darkthrone have always done what they want’. This is patently untrue, and also, condones the sort of liberal, destructive humanist behaviour that we at Antihumanism.com condemn utterly as the cancerous tumour at the heart of modern artistic endeavour and society as a whole.
‘Doing whatever you want’ is the mantra of businessmen who want you to consume and buy and act however you like, with no regard for the consequences of those actions because that brings them the greatest profit. This is not an ideology compatible with the early 90’s black metal of Darkthrone.   

To understand why ”Transilvanian Hunger” is hailed as a great work of art, while the likes of “Ravishing Grimness” are not, click here.