Darkthrone
Under a Funeral Moon

THE REVIEW

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.