The New Darkthrone Track is 14 Minutes Long

By all accounts, Fenriz seems like a really awesome guy; fun to hang out with, great sense of humor, and an encyclopedic-like knowledge of metal. I love that he insists on keeping his day job as a postal worker in Norway in favor of making Darkrthrone his job so as to preserve artistic integrity and creative vigor. His Q&A in a recent issue of Decibel Magazine (Ghost cover) was as entertaining as any straight Q&A interview I’ve read in a while. Dude certainly knows way about more metal history than I do, and I wither at the thoughts of finding out what he thinks about us amateurs here at MetalSucks.

Unfortunately, I just cannot seem to dig on the guy’s music all that much. Check out the 14-minute track “Leave No Cross Unturned,” the brand new Darkthrone song that just premiered on Pitchfork. It’s alright, it’s fine, there’s certainly nothing to dislike about it. But if some local band sent this track into the MetalSucks inbox as their own I’d probably be like “This is alright” and then I’d move onto the next. There isn’t anything spectacular about it; or is there? What am I missing? One thing I do dig about this track: Fenriz and Nocturno Culto seem to have a self-aware sense of humor about themselves and their music. Without saying so explicitly, they acknowledge that everything we all do in metal is inherently not meant to be taken too seriously, so they have a bit of fun with it (i.e. Nocturno Culto name-checking himself halfway through this song). Maybe I’m over-thinking all of this (gee, isn’t that shocking!) and I should just be focusing on headbanging or something.

Check out “Leave no Cross Unturned” here. The Underground Resistance comes out on February 26 via Peaceville.