DARKTHRONE Eternal Hails...... | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Peaceville Records on June 25th, 2021

Quick Background

Darkthrone, the black metal legends, became one of the leading bands in the Norwegian black metal scene in the early 90's with the release of their  Unholy Trinity albums: A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992), Under a Funeral Moon (1993) and Transilvanian Hunger (1994). They are considered to be among the most influential albums in black metal. Darkthrone has been a duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto since guitarist Zephyrous left the band in 1993. From 2006, their music strayed from the traditional black metal style and incorporated more elements of traditional heavy metal, punk, and speed metal, while more recent albums have also included doom metal.  

Eternal Hails......

Eternal Hails marks the band’s first album since 2019’s Old Star which to me was a good album. But slightly inferior to 2016's Arctic Thunder. Now their 19th album Eternal Hails consists of five new songs all exceeding seven minutes, adding up to 45 minutes. The duo has stated that this was intentional as some of their most important influences such as Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost and Candlemass all have long songs. Those longer and doomier tracks taking their time to make their point reflect drummer Fenriz’s love of doom. I personally also hear a hint of early Mercyful Fate on this album, falsettos not included, obviously. 

The opener track "His Masters Voice" balances well speed with slow tempo sections. It gets specially slow during the last 2 minutes with the melancholic guitar solo and last verses. I really enjoyed this choice to drag the song to its sorrowful end. It all also fade out with the opening arpeggio so it's a nice way to round it up full circle.

The production uses a lot of reverb on the vocals giving this old school somber vibe to their sound despite the guitars sounding very doom/traditional metal. Other than the vocals nothing else really reminds us of Black Metal. There's no tremolo or fast guitar picking on the album. The guitar work is rather simplistic but effective, there are tons of straightforward Iommi-like riffs. The band take their time with the riffs, giving that trippy transcending feel. One of the coolest riffs on the album is on track 2 "Hate Cloak" a 9-min doomy trip. "Voyage to a Northpole Adrift" is the longest song on the album with 10 minutes. Some very cool riffs as well with slow build ups

Now things do speed up with "Wake of the Awakened" which is the closest one to the black metal roots. It is very groovy and therefore it's a delightful Black N' Roll headbanger. Overall the drumming is very prominent with groovy beats combined with some engaging drum fills. I love the album cover by the way, the choice of colors and somber image worked very well. 

The Picky Guy

I guess my only complain is that it all sounds very familiar. I enjoyed all 5 songs, but on the other hand none blew me away. Very safe album, playing with their strengths and focusing on their sound from the last few albums and not truly taking us anywhere we haven't been before. But it is fun to listen to, I can't complain about that. The other thing is by the time we get to "Lost Arcane City of Uppakra" I am a bit tired of the rather similar songs and this song seem to extend its welcome.

Wrap Up Opinion 

Darkthrone. is a reliable source of good albums. They manage to stay fresh while keeping it consistent with previous records. The black metal roots are deeply berried below their doom sound but Eternal Hails still sounds like Darkthrone. While not a game changer, it's an interesting and fun album to listen to, for those reasons I am giving it 81/100 a good album that will please Doom and Black N Roll fans. 

SCORE: 81/100

Genre: Black/Doom Metal

Released by Peaceville Records on June 25th, 2021

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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