A wise man (namely Cronos of Venom) once said: „Black Metal – that’s fast and slow songs about sex, drugs, Rock'n’Roll and Satanism“ – and that’s what it’s all about! No paroles, no nursery rhymes, no bumblebees in the ass, no speed records, no artificial image – just pure, dark Rock‘n’Roll.
Since approximately six years DARKTHRONE become better and more and more creative and with their first single ever they present a true prime example of this genre. Already the title track shows what the rules of this game. Unembellished, mean, but with mangy-punky charisma Too Old Too Cold rumbles through the brushwood. The title says it all…
The next song High On Cold War goes towards the same directions and offers guitar leads and a very cool duet between Nocturno Culto’s typically snarling vocals and the hysterical screaming of Enslaved’s singer Grutle.
The following song explains why I hold DARKTHRONE in such high esteem: a cover version that expresses the attitude of this band perfectly. They don’t cover Celtic Frost, they also don’t cover Bathory, not Hellhammer, not Mayhem, but Love In A Void, a song by the British wave-punk band Siouxsie And The Banshees. Everyone who knows the original version (a good song by the way) must realize that it wasn’t covered completely without humor.
The “closer” Graveyard Slut again is in the vein of the newer DARKTHRONE that means it sounds raw, brute and is equipped with much Rock‘n’Roll blood.
With this single and for sure also with the coming album The Cult Is Alive this Norwegian duo sends a big fuck-off to both the modern metal culture as well as to the self-proclaimed Black Metal elite and that is why I appreciate so much the existence of this exclusive band!