I have mixed values about this disc. "Soulside Journey", along with such bands as early Therion and early Entombed, was an excellent slab of fairly cold sounding Scandinavian death metal. Everyone knows that along with "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" Darkthrone changed everything about themselves, and most importantly their music. This gives a sometimes comedic look back at what the band once was.

When I say "comedic" I'm not referring to the music at all. It's quite good, and besides the last track (which I shall explain later) is a fine slab of Darkthrone style death-metal, minus the synth work that made "Soulside Journey" so very creepy. It's actually Nocturno Culto's comments during the live show (which takes up most of the 54 minute disc) that make me feel silly. "Mr. Sound Engineer, are you ready?", "Hi, we're Darkthrone from Norway, we hope you like our show", "I want to see you wild" (I think??) and "wow, you guys are a really nice crowd" somewhat blow all images of "evil" that Darkthrone have successfully carved out during their career.

Anyways, the first 8 tracks are excellent and raw sounding, and for those of you who have heard "Soulside Journey" deserve no explanation. Tracks 9 and 10 are from the "Thulcandra" demo, and for those of you who have yet to hear that, it's simple death metal, with some semi-thrash style vocals. Nothing too amazing. The last track on the other hand, somewhat destroys the entire album. It's "supposedly" the track "Kathaarian Life Code", played live in Norway, 1992. Since That seemed somewhat illogical to me, and upon hearing the track, found it to be no less than false. It's nothing more than the song from "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" played DIRECTLY from the CD (if you're familiar with the song, you'll point it out immediately) , and recorded from across someone's room, with a few people talking next to the speaker. Absurd really, and I have NO idea why it was decided upon to toss this onto the disc.

© 1997 brand