Song Survivor - Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky round 1

[Slayed Necros]

Voted Cold Winds and Pagan Winter. Not an easy choice as everything here is at least very good. The title track and Paragon Belial are my top two with the latter being one of Darkthrone's best imo.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

oh yeay i was implying you should like it, lulz. And the nerve of you talking about IQ here after that above statement. Ammmayyyyyzin

"BLACK METAL SUCKS BECAUSE IT HAS NO RIFFS BUT I THINK THE WORST SONGS ON THIS BLACK METAL ALBUM ARE THE ONEZ WIT DA RIFFS" bahahhahha. It's ok, i blame it on your mom and dad being blood relatives.

you're a little confused poser anyway, "RIFFS ARE KING AND I HATE BLACK METAL BECAUSE IT HAS NO RIFFS/IS RIFFLESS BUT I LIKE THE BLACK METAL THAT HAS GOOD SOME GOOD RIFFS AND CHAOTIC ATMO". oh okay. No one on this forum walks back the things they've said more than you have. And the worst part is you usually try to weasel out of what you initially claimed to have said. You technically shouldn't "like" anything on this album(which i took into consideration and never implied you liked anything here) considering the amount of garbage you've spewed about black metal. You're basically a headless chicken and nothing more.

lol

I don't see any contradiction. I dislike a lot of black metal because it's frequently riff-replete, but some black metal has good riffs, and other black metal has good music even when riff-lite. If you took my low-effort "Better than black metal" quips 100% literally at all times that's your problem. I've basically always defended Mayhem on this forum and I'm pretty sure I've given Darkthrone many nods in the past as well. It's Burzum and Drudkh that have always been my favorite punching bags.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

you voted for Skald in the opening round brah...

Blood In Our Wells is the only Drudkh album im really familiar with, and its a very solid piece of work form what i remember.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

you voted for Skald in the opening round brah...

Yes and I explained why, to which you had no response.

Drudkh is the icon of atmoshit btw

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Yes and I explained why, to which you had no response.

Drudkh is the icon of atmoshit btw

"i like da chaos but hate the most chaotic song on dat album" hmmmm okay. "I hate black metal and love good riffs but i hate the song on that album with the most wicked riffage" O OKAY got it. That's my response

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The riffing sucks. I don't know that I've ever called "chaos" an automatic-good for me.

 

[Phylactery]

Gave this another listen on my commute to work and I’m happy with my choices. Still great tracks, but the weakest for me.

The top tier is Kathaarian Life Code and Paragon Belial imo. Paragon Belial is just fucking nasty. “MY FLESH YEARNS FOR THE TOMB WORLD!”

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Yeah I'm giving it a refresher and TechBarb is simply deaf. Kathaarian Life Code has fucking Dark Angel-style riffs in it, trills galore, while In the Shadow is a mix of low-melody trad/power trot and plodding 8th note chord droning. The hardcore break in the latter is still pretty cool, but there's no comparison between the two, not in terms of riffing, nor in terms of overall quality. The Pagan Winter is a little better than I remember though.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

shits on the riffing on Skald and calls me def? this guy is completely retarded. you're just confused and dont know what you like. I dont ever wanna see you talking about riffs again.

btw, Kathaarian Life Code is favored by newbs who've only listened to that album a few times or even worse, the pretentious Phyls of this world. So i'm not surprised. It was my favorite song from that album when i was 15. You're just a casual, what can i say?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

What do you love about In the Shadow of Horns? It seems to so obviously be the weak link.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

the dark angel style riffs brah

All im getting from most of these posts from you is just you playing off your inexperience, while acting like you're so familiar with these songs when in reality you're just getting to know them. "HEY BLACK METAL IS RIFFLES GARBAGE." .... few months alter after you leave your parents house and start listening to the "extreme" metal that you werent allowed to listen to at home ... "DEM DARK ANGEL RIFFS IN DA BLACK METALZ". Stop pretending and playing yourself off as some kind of all around metal guru on this forum when you're just a pleb who was pretty much only listened to shitty metalcore and power metal when i joined. You're starting to reek of poserdom man.

i really enjoy Kathaarian Life Code btw, its just no longer one of my favorites on the album

 

[HamburgerBoy]

You seriously can't hear the Dark Angel in that song?

Shadow and Pagan.

Damn, how immodest of me, I should have written a dissertation on black metal before acting like an expert by voting in an Ultimate-Metal album survivor poll, something that only true gurus may do.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

you weren't the only one who voted for those tracks and i never singled you out brah. Just telling you to drop your false ways. Just go ahead and admit that you were wrong and black metal does indeed have some good riffs, something you just started figuring out because the subgenre is still new to you. No need to pretend dude.

 

[CiG]

Kathaarian Life Code has fucking Dark Angel-style riffs in it, trills galore, while In the Shadow is a mix of low-melody trad/power trot and plodding 8th note chord droning. The hardcore break in the latter is still pretty cool, but there's no comparison between the two, not in terms of riffing, nor in terms of overall quality.

Fenriz interview:

BUT the reason I have to be stern about A Blaze in The Northern Sky is that it fooled people and people got fooled by it. And I’m talking about the press, fans and players in the scene. The packaging, sound and production made everyone think it was a pure black metal album, and then sort of widened the scope for what COULD be black metal. It was not intended that way. After we’d quit the old style of very technical death metal finally, we only had months before studio time, already booked for the supposed Goatlord album, and little time to make a full PRIMITIVE black metal album, so the 3 pure black metal songs on it are “Kathaarian Life Code,” “In The Shadow Of the Horns” (complete with Motörhead mid paced part and lots of Celtic Frost vibes as usual) and “Where Cold Winds Blow.” The rest was really a lot of death metal with some black metal parts – but everyone seemed to not think twice about THAT.

Thought it was interesting that the two songs you mentioned are the two Fenriz claims are among the few pure black metal tunes on the album.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

you weren't the only one who voted for those tracks and i never singled you out brah. Just telling you to drop your false ways. Just go ahead and admit that you were wrong and black metal does indeed have some good riffs, something you just started figuring out because the subgenre is still new to you. No need to pretend dude.

I've always said Mayhem had good riffs and therefore have never denied that some black metal does indeed have good riffs.

Fenriz interview:

BUT the reason I have to be stern about A Blaze in The Northern Sky is that it fooled people and people got fooled by it. And I’m talking about the press, fans and players in the scene. The packaging, sound and production made everyone think it was a pure black metal album, and then sort of widened the scope for what COULD be black metal. It was not intended that way. After we’d quit the old style of very technical death metal finally, we only had months before studio time, already booked for the supposed Goatlord album, and little time to make a full PRIMITIVE black metal album, so the 3 pure black metal songs on it are “Kathaarian Life Code,” “In The Shadow Of the Horns” (complete with Motörhead mid paced part and lots of Celtic Frost vibes as usual) and “Where Cold Winds Blow.” The rest was really a lot of death metal with some black metal parts – but everyone seemed to not think twice about THAT.

Thought it was interesting that the two songs you mentioned are the two Fenriz claims are among the few pure black metal tunes on the album.

Well if one defines Celtic Frost riffing as pure black metal then sure. I'm guessing what I perceived as a hardcore break was the Motorhead bit he's talking about. I don't buy the argument that A Blaze is particularly death metal-y by the usual meaning of the term, nor even Goatlord. Both albums take from many styles of metal and standard death metal is not a common element of either.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Fenriz interview:

BUT the reason I have to be stern about A Blaze in The Northern Sky is that it fooled people and people got fooled by it. And I’m talking about the press, fans and players in the scene. The packaging, sound and production made everyone think it was a pure black metal album, and then sort of widened the scope for what COULD be black metal. It was not intended that way. After we’d quit the old style of very technical death metal finally, we only had months before studio time, already booked for the supposed Goatlord album, and little time to make a full PRIMITIVE black metal album, so the 3 pure black metal songs on it are “Kathaarian Life Code,” “In The Shadow Of the Horns” (complete with Motörhead mid paced part and lots of Celtic Frost vibes as usual) and “Where Cold Winds Blow.” The rest was really a lot of death metal with some black metal parts – but everyone seemed to not think twice about THAT.

Thought it was interesting that the two songs you mentioned are the two Fenriz claims are among the few pure black metal tunes on the album.

but dat Dark Angel influence doe bro

 

[CiG]

Well if one defines Celtic Frost riffing as pure black metal then sure. I'm guessing what I perceived as a hardcore break was the Motorhead bit he's talking about. I don't buy the argument that A Blaze is particularly death metal-y by the usual meaning of the term, nor even Goatlord. Both albums take from many styles of metal and standard death metal is not a common element of either.

You're right, I'm sure Fenriz was just lying about recycling his death metal riffs because they changed their mind at the last moment and instead recorded a black metal album with not enough time to come up with new black metal riffs to fill an album with.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

yeah this album still having one foot in death metal is one of it's staples and everyone knows this. It's one of the reasons its my favorite Darkthrone record. Their next two albums(especiallyTH) are where they helped define what we now know as black metal/"second wave" bm.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

You're right, I'm sure Fenriz was just lying about recycling his death metal riffs because they changed their mind at the last moment and instead recorded a black metal album with not enough time to come up with new black metal riffs to fill an album with.

Fenriz uses his own weird Norwegian definitions. He's not as bad as Quorthon or Varg but you still can't take anything a NO MOSH NO DEATH guy says about death metal using the common definitions of the term. Since I provided my definitions I don't know why you think I'm denying the intent of his words, I'm simply clarifying and interpreting.

Dark Angel gets pretty close to death metal anyways so I don't see your issue.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

That was the first time BLACK METAL was no longer just BLACK METAL, as it was up to 1993 and AT LEAST 1991. And so it was a bit OVER for me, but what is stranger is that it didn’t really catch on in the USA before circaa1998 and there it seemed to be Emperor (!) that caught on the most. Uh-oh. Oh well, at least you had POSSESSED in the 80s! YEAH! And later Black Witchery and more and more organic sounding acts. I particularly enjoy Midnight. Then of course you had NECROVORE in 87, Abominations of Desolation MORBID ANGEL, first IMMOLATION demo…it doesn’t matter what style the bands called their music, if it gave off some BLACK METAL FEELING. It is better to listen to that when into a black metal mode than some plastic copy band from the 90s or whatnot. BLACK METAL wasn’t as formulaic as thrash or death metal, but it BECAME so with all the press jumping on it in ’93 and ’94 and since.

Yep, Motorhead, Morbid Angel, Immolation, Necrovore, Possessed, quintessential black metal right there.