Band:	Darkthrone
Album:	The Underground Resistance
Style:	Crust punk, Black metal, Heavy metal
Release date:	February 2013

01. Dead Early
02. Valkyrie
03. Lesser Men
04. The Ones You Left Behind
05. Come Warfare, The Entire Doom
06. Leave No Cross Unturned

Sometimes articulating what it is you love about a band's music can, to an extent, damage the magic the music in question has on you. Sometimes. So, as a Darkthrone fanboy, it feels like I should approach all this delicately.

Cos Darkthrone's the fucking tits. All hail Darkthrone \ m /

Their previous four full lengths seem to have, in general, successfully split their fanbase in two. On one side you've got the fans of their old kvlt stuff exclusively, the "the fuck is this wannabe 80s punk shit" people, and on the other you have the "if you don't like this, you don't like real metal, so FOAD" types. I lean toward the latter side. Their newer stuff teems and sloshes with the kind of inebriated energy I love most from heavy music. Their older stuff? Some of it kinda did, some of it didn't at all.

So, for a clear disclaimer, if you're a fan of ONLY their old albums*, you probably won't enjoy this one**. In fact, there's probably less black metal here than ever before on their albums.

That said, The Underground Resistance is different enough for at least some of those put off by their newer stuff to come back to the Darkthrone party***. It all sounds slightly more carefully planned than their previous four discs. It's a bit less brash and sounds a bit more thoughtfully produced. It's still got the Fenriz-brand, church of real metal, FOAD attitude and ethos to it, but it's been toned down. Their four discs directly preceding this one really emphasize their reckless sonic brushstrokes?background studio sounds, feedback noises, etc.--this album is more tightly put together.

Despite some hideous attempts at harmonizing on "The Ones You Left Behind," the vocals are, in general, better and more ranged than in the past (especially from Fenriz on "Leave No Cross Unturned," where, according to him on some interview on one of our immeasurably inferior competitors' websites, he said he channels Geoff Tate circa 1984 more than King Diamond, which he does well), the riffs and tunes are catchier than ever (check out the epic and surprisingly moving "Valkyrie"), and the drumming is as energetic as before. Technically, they're sounding sharper than they have in years. Technically.

I just don't know if I like the more taut, less crusty aesthetic of it all quite as much--we got a taste of it on Circle The Wagons, but the balance on that album is more to my liking.

Nevertheless, that's fully a matter of tweaking and taste and, when all's said and done here, this is yet another damn fine album from them****. Not to be missed stuff.



Fanboy asides:
*You suck.
**Then again, I doubt you'll like any good album because your ears clearly don't work.
***To come groveling back, awaken from their tasteless stupor with their stupid fucking corpsepaint smudged by their stupid fucking tears.
****I <3 Fenriz & Nocturno Culto (^。^)