Darkthrone to release new album in June

The Norwegian black metal legends Darkthrone will release their 19th album, “Eternal Hails”, on June 25th through Peaceville Records. Since forming in 1986 as Black Death in Kolboton, Norway, Darkthrone have been masters of their art. Dropping the death metal of 1991’s “Soulside Journey” debut album in favour of a more primitive, black metal sound on the following year’s “A Blaze In The Northern Sky”, they helped define black metal in the ’90s through albums like 1993’s “Under A Funeral Moon” and its follow-up “Transilvanian Hunger”.

On “Eternal Hails” the band presents longer, doomier songs that reflect drummer Fenriz’s love of doom. They also explore the sounds of the ’70s and the more freewheeling sounds of bands playing with more expansive themes. This didn’t just make the songs longer, it made them an entirely different beast from the ground up.

Nocturno Culto comments: “When I was a kid growing up with metal I kept looking for bands with long songs. Black Sabbath had many, and Celtic Frost’s “Dawn Of Meggido” had a long song, so I put that on in the record store and discovered another dimension of metal. Candlemass’ “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” had only long songs, so I think I bought that without even listening, and it was one of my best buys ever – an eternal inspiration for my entire career. For us it has become a bit logical, hard to explain, but you get to build up for a different kind of listening. A three-minute song is nothing we think of at the moment. We like it this way. For now.”