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Rating: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven"
New Testament according to Luke, chapter 10, verses 17,18
It was the lightning that tore through the dark shrouds of the Arctic sky, it was the testament of the Sons of Odin, it was the cry that arose from the ranks of the Last Charge of the Gods and that still echoes among the millennial trunks of the Norwegian forests.
Fenriz, Zephyrous, Nocturno Culto are the names of the three men who chose to carry forward the Scandinavian tradition against false and unnatural progress, against the advance of commercialization in the sacred Nordic lands, against an inexorable process of massification that disrupts the world and leaves it unaware of its pagan roots.
The seed planted in 1987 by Mayhem with "Deathcrush" finds in their first work its most fitting offshoot and, at the same time, one of its most majestic flowers. In 1991, with a power never before even dreamed of, Darkthrone constructed that manifesto of True Norwegian Black Metal, which is "A Blaze In The Northern Sky," surpassing every other extreme release of the era.
All the desolating force of the northern cold seems to condense in the 6 magnificent tracks that inaugurated one of the most prolific periods that BM history remembers.
The sound, darkly chaotic, desolating, and malevolent, leaves no room for melodic insertions, as amply demonstrated by all the compositions of the work, whose technical value is nonetheless much higher than believed.
The album opens with "Kathaarian Life Code," with a highly evocative prelude that gives way to the actual unfolding of the track only after creating a chilling atmosphere of solemnity. A very fast drumming introduces the piece, accompanying a corrosive Zephyrous, whose ever-changing riffs succeed in fascinating spirals of violence. The tones become slower and more measured, then regain vigor during the murderous fury of Nocturno Culto's sharp and echoing voice. The subsequent "In The Shadow Of The Horn" progresses (relatively) slowly, transforming into an apocalyptic triumph of brutality, with Fenriz rising, only to be eclipsed in the final part by a short but intense keyboard composition (!). "Paragon Belial" boasts beautiful, icy riffs and solos by Zephyrous, over which Nocturno Culto's roar inserts itself.
And after these three gems of Scandinavian fury, here comes the most devastating composition of the album, which is still remembered today among the best pieces in all of Extreme Metal: "Where Cold Winds Blow." Rabid, Fenriz accompanies a destructive voice that only respects the cruel arpeggios of a torturous and lamenting guitar. The numerous tempo changes dictated by the skins are exhilarating.
The following "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" bursts violently, led by Nocturno Culto's angry scream. Guitar passages rich in pathos and furious drumming alternate in icy coils of fury. "The Pagan Winter" is no lesser, which, like the other parts of the work, manages to create an unprecedented sense of cold. Notable throughout the album is the composition of the lyrics centered on the decline of pagan worship due to Christian evangelization. Verses of moving beauty express the nostalgic pain that permeates the entire work, thus integrating the great charm it already possesses.
Torrents of words aim to celebrate the greatness of "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" have been spent, but nothing will ever describe the arcane aura surrounding this first work of Darkthrone.
"My weapons sighed, my tears they tasted,
summon my warriors to the land of desire,
to the domain of hate where cold winds blew
for lust for hell we rode with the North Wind"
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Kathaarian Life Code (10:39)
Desert... Night...
Coyotes feel the cold wave of the dark
Red eyes eats through
The vast nocturnal landscape
A strong light - the only night
This is where he made sculptures
From the visions that created the force
Baphomet in steel
For the flesh of cain
A throne made by remains
Of twelve holy disciples
New disciples rose
One by one, ten by ten
All met under the desert moonlight
Knowledge fired across the landscape
Sparks that mixed with coyote eyes
Diabolic forces in a ceremonial union
And each beast of the land
Took its own way in living
The seven forbidden things
Were eternally desecrated
Kathaaria was built - world without end
02 In the Shadow of the Horns (07:01)
Face of the goat in the mirror
Eyes burn like an october sunrise
As once they gazed upon the hillside
Searching for the memories...
In the shadow of the horns
Only seen by the kings
Of the dawn of the first millennium
Upon the thrones
In the shadow of the horns
Cleansed like the air in the night
World without end
We've become a race of the cursed seeds
For five united forces
In the eternal dawn
The kings that held their heads high
The triumph of chaos - has guided our path
We circles the holy Sinai - our swords gave wings
Invisible force of our abyssic hate
Our seeds boil as we gaze upon the new millennium
Weeping by the graves of the glorious ones
So the hardened frost melts away
Clouds gather across a freezing moon
I kiss the goat - witchcraft still breathes
03 Paragon Belial (05:24)
I lay Enshrined
Contaminated Time Warp
My Flesh Yearns
For the Tombworld
My soul like layers of Frost
Simulating a Spectre Shadow
Frozen in Time and Space
I was Hacked out of Ice
Faded am I, behind a wall of consciousness
Still feeling a different World
Surrounding Me
Chilling Voices fill my head -
I Open My Eyes;
The Boiling Sea Beneath
The Castle of Faust
Belial finally Comes Forth:
"The Ancient White light writings
were just lying men and their Pens
You are the same, only in Black.
Return with the knowledge
of making your own god"
Dreamking of the Tombworld:
I Enter Into an Eternal Oath
Creating my Paragon Belial
05 A Blaze in the Northern Sky (04:57)
Hear a haunting chant
Lying in the northern wind
As the sky turns black
Clouds of melancholy
Rape the beams
Of a devoid dying sun
And the distant fog approaches
Coven of forgotten delight
Hear the pride of a northern storm
Triumphant sight on a northern sky
Where the days are dark
And night the same
Moonlight drank the blood
Of a thousand pagan men
It took ten times a hundred years
Before the king on the northern throne
Was brought tales of the crucified one
Coven of renewed delight;
A thousand years have passed since then -
Years of lost pride and lust
Souls of blasphemy
Hear a haunting chant
We are a blaze in the northern sky
The next thousand years are ours
06 The Pagan Winter (06:34)
Horned master of endless time
Summon thy unholy disciples
Trained for centuries to come
Gather on the highest mountain
United by hatred;
The final superjoint ritual...
This, the pagan winter
Kept for the obscure ones
Candles hold the only light
Sextons hide in fear
For this eternal winter
A new god ruled the sky
The million hands of joy
Have something holy to burn
From the top of the world one could see
The white light servants flee
Engulfed in an infernal cyclone
Created by our blasphemy
Religious bodies crossed the sky
the vision was our wine
Roar of fire, feeble fools
Into the furnace fire
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By Cimbarello132
Darkthrone is the only light in this eternally black sky dotted with extinguished stars.
One of the greatest black metal albums ever written, played, produced.
