After DT's (pun intended!) U.B.M.-trilogy, this one certainly has a sense of closure already. i think that even Fenriz has known for a long time that it would be a good idea to end Darkthrone with one swift merciless stroke (an optimist might think that he has instead decided to torture it to a prolonged painful death!). After this one, whilst Goatlord is great, it's certainly downhill, at a geometric rate.

The lyrics only minimally have to do with Satan, but it's more about going off the planet and beyond the stars; it's sort of romantic that way. The music is much heavier, brooding and kind of roughly melancholic, too. While the soundscape is more towards their death than black metal, the song structures are not. They're not overtly technical. So it's in between.

The lyrics are written at different eras, although one wouldn't notice that. It's not all thematic, there's both pagan and space lyrics, but both have been written in 1994 and 1991. All the songs are good, as is the album as whole, but there is one hit-song that rises above everything else: Quintessence. The lyrics (or the whole song?) for it were written by Greifi Grishnackh and, personally, i think it's the finest poetic piece Greifi has ever written.

i don't sound like it, or feel like it right now, but i am excited about this album. It's simply brilliant. It's ugly and distorted, melancholic and has significant depth to it.

One thing is that, as i'm staring at the sleeves, i can't help but notice the couple of silly statements written. In my opinion, these shouldn't exist. "The Most Hated Band in the World" is amusing, though, but the political one is just .. why, oh why?

© 2003 rotblood