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Darkthrone - Pre-Historic Metal
Over the past dozen or so years, I have tried many times to find my way into Darkthrone. Sooner or later, every one of those attempts ended in failure. Until last year, that is. Something finally clicked - and clicked so decisively that the Norwegians' discography landed on my shelf almost in one sweep. Perhaps it is another reminder that taste changes with age, but so does the way we listen to music. Something that once felt off-putting, chaotic, or simply not meant for me suddenly began to fall into place as a remarkably coherent whole. There is so much material there that I am still finding new details in Darkthrone's music, and that also lets me approach the new album with fresh ears - the first one I knowingly waited for and the first one I preordered. That is a very different experience from catching up years after the fact. This time I was not reaching for another missing piece of the discography, but for an album whose release genuinely felt like an event.
The wait was made easier by two things - the title track released ahead of the album, and following the debate that has been running for more than 30 years between the supporters and detractors of whatever Darkthrone happens to be doing at any given moment. Because with this band, listening to the new records is only part of the fun. The other part is watching how reliably each new chapter can reignite the argument over what Darkthrone was, what it should be, and whether the band should care in the slightest what its listeners expect from it.
"Pre-Historic Metal" raised my expectations for the new release considerably. From the very first notes, it gives off the atmosphere of metal's golden age at the turn of the seventies and eighties. There is a great deal of Motörhead here - so much so that on first listen you can almost expect Lemmy to step up to the microphone at any moment. At one point the song picks up speed and takes on a much more black metal character. The production plays a huge role, making the whole thing sound raw and basement-like. Not to the extent of "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" or "Transilvanian Hunger", of course, but that character is clearly there. This is not a sound that has slipped out of control. It is deliberately dirtied up, rough around the edges, and placed exactly where it needs to be.
Darkthrone fans have long been split into two camps. One insists that the band ended with "Panzerfaust" and that everything after it should never have existed. The other takes a far more relaxed view and finds plenty to enjoy in the Norwegians' later work. Meanwhile, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto seem entirely unconcerned with this "dispute". They give little impression of paying attention to anything happening outside their wooded Norwegian world. Since "Panzerfaust", they have recorded more than a dozen albums - always in whatever style they felt drawn to at the time, without looking over their shoulders at trends, expectations, or the opinions of those who would have gladly kept them frozen in 1995.
That attitude seems far more reasonable than pushing into a dead end and trying to recreate old classics when the musicians no longer inhabit that same atmosphere. Thanks to that, we have been given a lot of interesting material, and Darkthrone continues to add another record to the pile with admirable regularity - more or less every two years. Some are stronger, some are weaker, but all of them feel like albums made out of inner necessity rather than out of some obligation to keep a legend alive. "Pre-Historic Metal" joins the post-"Panzerfaust" catalog and sits comfortably in its upper half.
The album brings no revolution at all - it is hard even to speak of any clear evolution. Darkthrone simply continues along the path it chose many years ago. So what makes it so enjoyable, even though on paper, we are getting "more of the same"? First and foremost, the quality of the material. "Pre-Historic Metal" contains eight tracks and runs for 41 minutes, which feels almost perfectly judged. It gives the album enough substance without allowing boredom to set in. It ends exactly when it should, before the formula has any chance to wear thin.
A few more minutes might have tipped the balance, especially since the album is built mainly around mid-tempos and does not offer enormous variety. Still, that variety is present in the title track, which clearly accelerates in places. The calmer instrumental "So I Marched To The Sunken Empire" also stands out, as does the faster "Eat Eat Eat Your Pride", again dripping with Motörhead atmosphere, and "The Dry Wheels Of Hell", where the band toys with tempo several times. These are not dramatic twists and turns, perhaps, but they are enough to keep the record from becoming a monotonous march through familiar ideas.
The rest of the material is a very neat blend of heavy, doom, and thrash metal with black'n'roll. Beyond the already mentioned Motörhead, Mercyful Fate is also easy to hear - right from the opening moments, in fact, as the riff in "They Found One Of My Graves" clearly nods toward the beginning of "Don't Break The Oath". The song itself is one of the most interesting moments on the album. "Siberian Thaw" attacks the listener with a doom-laden riff and is another of the record's strongest pieces. It is the longest track here, but it never feels like it, because around the halfway point, it suddenly turns toward a calmer, instrumental mood. "Deeply Rooted" and "Eon 4" complete the picture. They do not turn the album upside down, but they round out its character convincingly - simple, raw, heavy, and rooted in metal classicism.
So what kind of album is "Pre-Historic Metal"? It will certainly give both sides of the argument something to work with. The sceptics are unlikely to change their minds - this is not basement black metal reaching back to the classics of the nineties. The "enthusiasts", on the other hand, will have no trouble settling into the new material and quickly identifying the songs they will want to revisit. Darkthrone is not trying to persuade anyone that it has returned to its roots, nor is it trying to prove that it can still surprise. Instead, the band does exactly what it has long done best - it mixes old metal fascinations with its own instantly recognizable way of playing. For me, as a listener standing somewhat to the side of the whole argument, this is simply another very good Darkthrone album, drawing freely from the classics of several metal traditions. For some time now, I have approached the duo's work almost without reservation, and it will be no different with "Pre-Historic Metal". Not because it is a groundbreaking or particularly surprising record, but because it works so well within the world that Fenriz and Nocturno Culto continue to build entirely on their own terms. If they can keep this level up, they may as well record until they turn 100 - my record shelf can take it.
Album info
Artist: Darkthrone
Title: Darkthrone - Pre-Historic Metal
Label: Peaceville
Released: 2026
Genre: Metal
Length: 41:00
