{"id":96540,"date":"2022-10-28T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T23:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=96540"},"modified":"2022-10-31T17:35:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T17:35:30","slug":"album-review-darkthrone-astral-fortress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-darkthrone-astral-fortress\/","title":{"rendered":"DARKTHRONE – Astral Fortress (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DARKTHRONE
Astral Fortress<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPeaceville (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve certainly been here before as cult members Ted \u201cNocturno Culto\u201d Skejellum and Gylve \u201cFenriz\u201d Nagell drag us once again into their doom-laden depths of icy nostalgia, as evidenced by the Panzerfaust<\/em> (1995) reference on the tongue-in-cheek cover.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame, of course, that the gruesome twosome does like to resort to elements of humour and throwback metal dabbling, with Hellhammer into Celtic Frost and then through Manilla Road, but it is all stuffy, gloomy yet often so wondrously riff-laden from the doomy dirge of the scowling opener \u2018Caravan Of Broken Ghosts\u2019. The faster passages rattle the cage of mid-80s Euro metal as the Fenriz bashes his way through a multitude of trash cans to create that exquisite snare that ambles furiously and rust-coated alongside the speed metal juggernaut.<\/p>\n

In a sense Astral Fortress<\/em> is predictable, but such are its lunging tentacles of horror that one can\u2019t help but be dragged down into the pit of laborious murk pools as gloomed riff after gloomed riff cascades like black, freezing water. However, where we truly marvel at the duos impeccable craftsmanship is the riff and simplistic plod of \u2018Impeccable Caverns Of Satan\u2019, which is the most infectiously joyous track on offer with its doom-laden opening that also embraces a creative, snaking aesthetic to pull us into its lair.<\/p>\n

Sure, Tom G. Warrior is channelled time and time again with those smirking growls, and yes, it does just prompt me to throw on those early Celtic Frost albums while thumbing through the classic Speed Kills<\/em> compilations, but it\u2019s also a Darkthrone<\/a> trademark, in spite of the die-hard fans craving \u2013 for some unknown reason \u2013 the black metal era.<\/p>\n

Darkthrone still brings a black metal aesthetic, but since the grim wastes of Panzerfaust<\/em> they\u2019ve toiled headlong into these fat rolling hills of riff perversion whereby tracks \u2013 albeit at times overlong \u2013 squirm and wind into the ears like grim parasites.<\/p>\n

\u2018Stalagmite Necklace\u2019 lumbers in ominous fashion to the stark taps of Fenriz\u2019s beat before the enigmatic swirls of the epic and grandiose \u2018The Sea Beneath The Seas Of The Sea\u2019 unravel. There are elements of the Lovecraftian when it comes to Darkthrone\u2019s obscure, esoteric vapours; bizarrely cosmic and barren conjurations as the pace steadily quickens to what is still a crusty lope.<\/p>\n

The sinister grooves of \u2018Kevorkian Times\u2019 continue to fashion as great marbled halls constructed of black ice before the now expected speedier chimes cause the vast corridors to crack with nostalgic aplomb. Meanwhile, \u2018Kobolton, West Of The Vast Forests\u2019 is mere soundtrack before the gnarly riffage of \u2018Eon 2\u2019 comes trudging like some fetid punk \/ crust mammoth, barging its way through snowy barricades and shaking off its matted coat to a pallid New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-styled hook. It\u2019s arguably the most \u201cmetal\u201d track on the opus, beaming with a traditional pride.<\/p>\n

However, when the needle lifts you still understand that Astral Fortress<\/em>, like its predecessor Eternal Hails……<\/em><\/a> (2021), is a venture into blackened doom metal plateaus \u2013 an often foreboding, otherworldly yet unembellished journey that thankfully knows when to break from its daring monotony.<\/p>\n

Has Darkthrone become the AC\/DC, or more so Mot\u00f6rhead of its chosen realm? Well, not quite, but what is clear is that they still deliver the goods and with a passion, albeit a penchant for reinventing the 70s and 80s steel.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DARKTHRONEAstral Fortress Peaceville (2022)Rating: 8\/10 We\u2019ve certainly been here before as cult members Ted \u201cNocturno Culto\u201d Skejellum and Gylve \u201cFenriz\u201d Nagell drag us once again into their doom-laden depths of icy nostalgia, as evidenced by the Panzerfaust (1995) reference on the tongue-in-cheek cover. It\u2019s a shame, of course, that the gruesome twosome does like to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,481],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-darkthrone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96551,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96540\/revisions\/96551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}