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Rating:
Although chronologically between "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" and "Transilvanian Hunger," "Under A Funeral Moon" can, and perhaps rightly so, be considered outside the mythical Darkthrone trilogy (the two albums already mentioned and the subsequent "Panzerfaust"), as it does not add anything new to what was created in the three masterpieces by Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, in terms of atmosphere, violence, balance: if "A Blaze" helped define, with its black and icy settings, the canons of proto-black, "Transilvanian Hunger" turned a page by entering a totally nihilistic and minimalistic path, and "Panzerfaust" left its mark with the impenetrable walls of sound distortion that Nocturno's granite guitar never forgot to raise, "Under A Funeral Moon" merely adds a few notes to the genre, without being indispensable or particularly interesting.
However, that does not mean the work cannot be enjoyable, and upon closer listening, it reveals at least interesting if not enlightening insights: it starts with one of the most known works of Darkthrone - I am referring to the early period, the true-black one -, "Natassja In Eternal Sleep", a sort of existential angst song, naturally reinterpreted in a dark and satanic key; Nocturno Culto's sulfuric acid scream dominates a rancid riff that almost seems to screech, a pounding drum, and an invisible bass - it's worth noting that Zephyrous' disappearance could only have been a deadly blow to the band since an instrumentalist, if not indispensable, certainly incisive and phenomenal in his category was missing. The truly inhuman voice at the end breaks the guitar-double bass drum loop, which will be resumed, albeit with different characteristics, at various moments in the album, creating a real explosion of cold, which is not avoided by the subsequent "Summer Of The Diabolical Holocaust", where, albeit somewhat vacuously due to a truly lo-fi recording, the typical cold malaise riffs that had made "A Blaze" successful are evident, and the drums embark on a pattern characteristic of the whole album: maintaining the rhythm, in some moments, constituted only by bouncing from one drum to another, in a dirty, minimalist, entirely particular sound. The intermezzo riff is not the most engaging, but an ice blade runs through the darkness again in the last two minutes, decisively contributing to the definition of this almost masterpiece.
Slower and more cadenced instead is "The Dance Of Eternal Shadows", focused on Nocturno Culto's vocal abilities, who at times gives the impression of screaming his own screaming, which seems to be a sort of gravelly gurgle on a too continuous frequency and a too coldly scraped tone to be properly called screaming; the good alternation of speeds allows Skjellum to best express anger, anxiety, and violence.
Another "existentialist" song is "Unholy Black Metal", in the same vein as the first two tracks; three minutes and thirty of pure violence, which, however, due to the excessive linearity of the piece, cannot convince as much as the openers. Certainly more incisive is "To Walk The Infernal Fields", with its colossal duration - almost eight minutes - static, repetitive, hypnotic piece, which eventually manages to convey that feeling of evil numbness, of an excess of destructive adrenaline circulating in the blood; characteristic riffs and screams corrupted by reverb and the evident self-amplification that sound waves undergo as they bounce and overlap with themselves; good closure also from a guitar perspective.
Black Metal really in its most rotten and bestial state in "Under A Funeral Moon", a suicidal-song where the rotted and typical guitar and drum riff seems to truly materialize the goat-faced being with curved horns and shaggy beard... limitless cold and exasperated violence, while traveling to hell through a field of bare trees under the late October moon, and you're lowered into the grave after drinking poisoned blood and tasting steel opening veins, listening to a raven singing the last song...
Fantastic "Inn I De Dype Skogers Favn" (Into the Embrace of the Deep Woods), with a voice more inclined towards growling and a funeral-still guitar. The stretched times force an unpleasant journey in a colorless and certainly unwelcoming environment.
Closing with "Crossing The Triangle Of Flames", a well-crafted, fast, dark, violent piece where an atmospheric and cruel bass also appears.
To be known and enjoyed in its infinite wickedness.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Natassja in Eternal Sleep (03:35)
Alcohol is in my veins...
Tears fall as I think of you.
The True Memory you left Me with
Is a Key to the wine of Melancholy.
I Drown Myself in the Deepest of Sorrows
As You Burned on that Stake,
they burnt my soul as well.
Your Pure Feelings, Your Flaming Hate;
it was not enough.
Natassja, my beloved Satanic Witch,
The Power in Your Eyes and Yourself
Worked for the Noble in Man.
Pass the Bottle, Pass the Knife,
Pass Me Your Unholy Crafts.
I Shall Never forget You, the Best
of All there is. I Lick Your Cold Lips,
I Embrace Your Coffin as I sigh in woe.
You Never Kissed the Priest, You Never
Drank the blood of jesus. Weird, they say -
well, turn it upside down like You did,
And they Kill, KILL, and they take You away...
Now, Centuries Later, I do Yours and My sign.
You live in Me, like You moved in with My Soul.
Your resurrection is the Spirit of You -
installed in Me. So now, Your thoughts
and Your Pains are My Wine;
And Natassja:
I'll get these goddamn angels Drunk
02 Summer of the Diabolical Holocaust (05:20)
Come the raging chaos, rule power from your soul
Pure demonised blessing as I kill myself in woe
Alls souls coloured the pace of the moon
Shall suffer the religious
You must know that I can no longer see
The difference of dreams and reality
For the walls have been sieged
And conquered by war
Dark satanic blasphemy
I stand alone in a valley filled with starlight
My eyes suffer from eternal sparks
So shut the light and dream so I can see
The trident clearer than liver moon
And in my darkest fantasy
And as I reach for hell
I am free...
Hearers are raising from the open sky
Meglomanta reignes supreme
Chilled in horror - christian death
They learned how long to stand and pull
I head to receive
The lust and pain
Beat me jesus
And we will win
05 To Walk the Infernal Fields (07:52)
From the abode of demons
A wing of the pentagram
Comes the juice that painted
My heart and my soul
Swept in black they are
Swept in black I am
From this soul comes the eyes
That will look upon your ten
Beautiful heads with delight
My heart is the one
That will tend to your flames
And make them mine
We share this spirit -
My heart is yours...
I am your disciple
And therefore my own
Your weapon I will be
With the demons that posesses me
We'll ride the seven sins of death
That takes me to Katharian
The sign of your horns
Is my dearest vision
They impale all holy and weak
You watch me face the mirror
And see desecration
With my art I am the fist
In the face of god
06 Under a Funeral Moon (05:08)
On the day of my final sacrifice
The chilling steel open my veins
Blood staines my skin
Silver chalice must be filled
Drinking the poisoned blood
I enter my shadowed coffin
Two goathorns in my hands
I raise my arms and close my eyes
To receive the infernal hails
From my brother in the land of the damned
The howling wind blows in the naked trees
Moonlit fields are glowing in the dark
Below me, the path to the cemetary
Where my spiritual brothers take me
They halt at the shadows of an oak
My nocturnal funeral commence
Lying in my blasphemous sleep
I am lowered down to the pit
A raven sings my last song
As the wolves howl their goodbyes
The funeral moon glows strongly now
For I am nearly there
This night of late october
The darkside open it's gate
Morbid souls wait for me
- For satanic conspiracy
Flowers of doom
Rising in bloom
You will see
Our immortality!
No flags for the tens lines
Bt I'll shoot you full of signs
In other dimensions
My visions grew black wings
07 Inn i de dype skogers favn (05:27)
Det går en vei over fjellet
Inn i de dype skogers favn
Gårder her led grusom skjebne
Ved likbål sørget mang en ravn
Pesten trod den Norske mark
Fra havn over land til annen havn
Med tunge subbende skritt den seg
Inn i de dype skogers favn
Dauden i sort gjorde sjelen frossen
Gjorde huden veik under en Norrøn himmel
Det går en vei over fjellet
Inn i de dype skogers favn
Langsom vandring fører meg
Inn i det dunkle skogsriket
For å finde en gård, eldet og forlatt
Fra en ensom, sort og endeløs natt...
08 Crossing the Triangle of Flames (06:12)
Engulfed in frost
I sailed our dreams
Gloomy inner landscape comes to life
I am the wolf in the darkest scene
Phantasm sweep my role
I am Lucifer, I bring you light and pride
Three steps for the white
A journey for the black
No flags for the ten lines
But I'll shoot you full of signs
In other dimensions
My visions grew black wings
You wouldn't know if I was him
The dragon rises before me
I'll fornicate the beast
Possess me as I burn
Into your painted realms
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