Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger

Riff mark: good luck

At these chilly, grim crossroads we approach the antithesis of all heft and riff, this near-40 minute cassette master that was obviously dropped in too many piles of goat blood and treated with improper tongue cleaning. Chamber music recorded from the chamber pot, Darkthrone now a duo, their discography thinning like their roster, a victim of tape degradation, the acceptable recording values from Soulside Journey stretching through two more albums then snapping, remnants piecemealed into slivers of occasional voice and maybe a snare. Eight songs all alike, Nocturno Culto tremolo-picking one or two measures for five minutes apiece, Fenriz slumbering through monotonous thrash beats by stylistic choice, throwing away all prior talent heard in the echoes of Soulside. One of maybe three defining statements of the black metal genre but A Blaze in the Northern Sky is more tolerable and versatile, and better. Easier to accept as a blurred cluster of ambient musings, a masochistic recording for masochists.