DARKTHRONE is like that old reliable friend we all have. They’re always there in the background and appear just when you start to wonder where they have gone. DARKTHRONE never goes away for long, and as yet again they are churning out albums like a cow churns out milk. Fenriz and Nocturno Culto do it again with Circle The Wagons, their fifteenth full length album release.

Love it or hate it, DARKTHRONE is gonna do what they wanna do. Not so much has changed between the release of their previous two albums F.O.A.D. and Dark Thrones And Black Flags. Circle The Wagons picks up pretty much where those two left off. Gone are the days of DARKTHRONE past where misanthropic black metal grooves gave you that solemn feel of delightful emptiness. Gone is Nocturno Culto’s chloroform spitting hate filled vocals. Now replaced with half hearted anguish, his vocals don’t seem as intense as they once were. Fenriz is really taking the reigns now and steering the band into strange territory. Punk and old school metal styles seem to have captivated his songwriting and overpowered the music. His vocals range from odd bellowing to singing shouts. There are still some hints of old DARKTHRONE like Stylized Corpse, but this song seems to be the last inkling of the way they once were. I Am The Working Class is so bad ass and could be the working man’s anthem. There is also a semi instrumental closing the album. After yelling the title, Brann Inte Slottet for close to a minute, we are subjected to a rather great showcase of mighty DARKTHRONE riffage. However, a few really good songs don’t qualify for a great album. There are points where this album just lacks genuine oomph and some songs seem like filler.

At first listen I did not like this album so much, however, upon further listens it is starting to slowly grow on me. I do find that I tend to lean toward the songs that Nocturno Culto writes, as they sound more aggressive. Fenriz’s songs have more of an “I don’t give a fuck what you think attitude”. Maybe that is the whole point of this album. The question remains how long DARKTHRONE can keep at it before running out of steam.