Darkthrone
Transilvanian Hunger
[Peaceville]
8 godly tracks, 39:06
Darkthrone's fourth album (not counting Goatlord). At this stage, the multiple breaks and Bathory/Celtic Frost riffs of "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" had completely disappeared, and the band expanded on their trademark minimalist riffing: trance inducing two, three and four note themes over a constant stream of trebly distortion, endlessly shifting the same patterns over and over again, with an equally minimalistic rhythmical background. There's nothing, absolutely nothing 'appealing' to this raw, filthy, simple and ugly 'music' until you've realized that this is *exactly* what Darkthrone are trying to convey. This is even reflected in the sleeve: the crudely distorted b/w photo is symbolic for the whole album.
On a structural level, the music here is more ambient than traditional Metal in the sense that it is not the riffs, the solos, the chorus or the breaks that are the essence of the music but the trance-inducing combination of haunting melodic patterns and minimalism taken to extremes - actually quite similar to the effect Eno achieved on his pioneering works in the 70's like "Music For Airports", or what his successors have done within the genre of ambient music. For example, "Transilvanian Hunger" starts off with its title track which instantly reveals the nature of the concept: three painfully simple themes, using the same four notes, alternating back and forth over a constant kick-snare pattern with hihats at the kick and snare and a cymbal crash every 8 bars. Very simple and very effective. Nothing really 'happens' within the song, it just 'is', and the same goes for the whole album. Darkthrone were the first to emphasize on this effect alone, and to disregard everything that would disturb it: no solos, no breaks, no tempo changes, no intros, it's unusually 'empty'.
Where "Under A Funeral Moon" had this thin, clattering, eerie and disturbingly sick sound, "Transilvanian Hunger", although not totally different, is more 'in your face', sounding as if they're playing right next to the listener. People have called this album 'badly produced' but I don't really see why - sure it's raw and primitive and all but it sounds like it should sound, no instruments come out too loud or too soft and every element fits the overall picture.
Literally hundreds of bands have since tried to do what Darkthrone did here, and it's not difficult to see why. This simply breathes Black Metal, is hugely charismatic and is perhaps the one single album that defines what Black Metal stands for: the primitive hate, the minimalism, the disregard for everything beautiful, the anti-aesthetic nature of the Beast In Man itself. Black Metal stripped down to reveal its very core. "Transilvanian Hunger" is a landmark in modern Black Metal and to say it should be in everyones collection would be an understatement.
© 2000 sybren
Darkthrone's fourth album (not counting Goatlord). At this stage, the multiple breaks and Bathory/Celtic Frost riffs of "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" had completely disappeared, and the band expanded on their trademark minimalist riffing: trance inducing two, three and four note themes over a constant stream of trebly distortion, endlessly shifting the same patterns over and over again, with an equally minimalistic rhythmical background. There's nothing, absolutely nothing 'appealing' to this raw, filthy, simple and ugly 'music' until you've realized that this is *exactly* what Darkthrone are trying to convey. This is even reflected in the sleeve: the crudely distorted b/w photo is symbolic for the whole album.
On a structural level, the music here is more ambient than traditional Metal in the sense that it is not the riffs, the solos, the chorus or the breaks that are the essence of the music but the trance-inducing combination of haunting melodic patterns and minimalism taken to extremes - actually quite similar to the effect Eno achieved on his pioneering works in the 70's like "Music For Airports", or what his successors have done within the genre of ambient music. For example, "Transilvanian Hunger" starts off with its title track which instantly reveals the nature of the concept: three painfully simple themes, using the same four notes, alternating back and forth over a constant kick-snare pattern with hihats at the kick and snare and a cymbal crash every 8 bars. Very simple and very effective. Nothing really 'happens' within the song, it just 'is', and the same goes for the whole album. Darkthrone were the first to emphasize on this effect alone, and to disregard everything that would disturb it: no solos, no breaks, no tempo changes, no intros, it's unusually 'empty'.
Where "Under A Funeral Moon" had this thin, clattering, eerie and disturbingly sick sound, "Transilvanian Hunger", although not totally different, is more 'in your face', sounding as if they're playing right next to the listener. People have called this album 'badly produced' but I don't really see why - sure it's raw and primitive and all but it sounds like it should sound, no instruments come out too loud or too soft and every element fits the overall picture.
Literally hundreds of bands have since tried to do what Darkthrone did here, and it's not difficult to see why. This simply breathes Black Metal, is hugely charismatic and is perhaps the one single album that defines what Black Metal stands for: the primitive hate, the minimalism, the disregard for everything beautiful, the anti-aesthetic nature of the Beast In Man itself. Black Metal stripped down to reveal its very core. "Transilvanian Hunger" is a landmark in modern Black Metal and to say it should be in everyones collection would be an understatement.
© 2000 sybren