Most intense shopping trip ever

"...yes, but before you buy, you must answer this short quiz..."

Yes, we have our copy of The Underground Resistance, and yes, it's knocked even us sideways.

What else did we expect!

Dark Newthrone

Darkthrone and Peaceville are teasing us with the new track Leave No Cross Unturned...

Even when they are surprising you, it's no surprise.
Hardest yet...belter.
Two Minutes and Fifty Two seconds in, all posers are crushed.
Can not wait for the full album.

The Graves of the 80's

Information has been pretty thin on the ground about the forthcoming Darkthrone LP Circle The Wagons, but some details have started to come forward.
This is the first big release of 2010 that Thee Claw are looking forward to, and a peek at the tracklist and tantalising song titles are making me even more anxious:

01. Those Treasures Will Never Befall You
02. Running For Borders
03. I Am The Graves Of The 80s
04. Stylized Corpse
05. Circle The Wagons
06. Black Mountain Totem
07. I Am The Working Class
08. Eyes Burst At Dawn
09. Bränn Inte Slottet

Apparently, the LP will contain NO black metal at all, instead focusing on "Speed Metal".
Can't wait, watch this space!

"I am still proud of my insane brain decision"

on the side here, you can see that somebody has written a short biography on us. it's ok, but if you REALLY want to know the truth, i can fill you in on the REAL story...

WHEN i decided to take my music further, step it up a notch, i changed name from BLACK DEATH to DARKTHRONE in late 1987. At first, the music was very FREE, drawing inspirations from whatever i liked, from CELTIC FROST to CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER. A chaos, if you like. The first DARKTHRONE demo was also like this, there was a will there to incorporate anything from NAPALM DEATH to epic metal like METALLICA/ENGLISH DOGS. That also shows on our 2nd outing, "SNOWFALL". But then things changed. I think it's safe to say that on our 3rd cassette "Thulcandra", we suddenly seemed more akin to SEPULTURA's fantastic SCHIZOPHRENIA album, 1st DEATH album and not to forget one of the main parts that was extremely inspired by CRUMSUCKERS 2nd album "beast on my back". That cassette was early 1989, and i still "sang" in DARKTHRONE. However, i had to do the vocals at the "studio guy's" apartment, it was too private a setting for me, and i was not happy with the result. I sounded too much like regular NYHC style, although i love that genre i didn't think it fit for DARKTHRONE. In the summer of 1989 i therefore decided that TED/NOCTURNO CULTO should sing, and instead do my own vocals with ISENGARD, and i recorded the "SPECTRES OVER GORGOROTH" demo with ISENGARD that summer.

So it was that in early 1989, DARKTHRONE had become a sort of death-thrash band. With Ted on vocals and with further songwriting and enhanced playing-abilities, last part of 1989 saw us becoming a technical horror-death metal band with the 4th cassette "CROMLECH", which is taken from the soundboard of a gig we did at the BOOTLEG CONCERT HALL in 1989. This style was further developed with more OUTER SPACE feelings mixed with Satanic haunts on our first and second album "SOULSIDE JOURNEY and GOATLORD". We wanted the first album to have ORGANIC sound but it would cost us TOO MUCH! We had no choice but to enter the Sunlight studios with the very kind help from our friends in NIHILIST who had then changed name to ENTOMBED. They were so kind to let us stay with them, even! Nicke, your help and guidance is never forgotten! I have to say that because of budget problems, Sunlight studios was our only option, KNOWING that our sound on "Soulside Journey" would not be as ORGANIC as we wanted. We wanted a more BLACK SABBATH sound or something. The studio guy didn't even want us to bring our own drum set! But i refused that, and brought my whole drum kit on the plane to Stockholm. But when it came to the bass drums, the studio guy WOULD NOT let me bring my bass drums! What the hell! So we had to compromise: I would play on his filthy d-drum pads, BUT tune them so it would be DYNAMIC, meaning that if i played soft it would be soft, and hard - it would be hard. Everyone else just says "it doesn't matter how hard i hit, every bass drum kick should be equally loud". And to me, that is KILLING MUSIC. It sucks.

However, the death metal had become our TRADE in 1990, it is "what we did". But personally, what we listened to before and after rehearsals for instance, had changed. We had become tired of most death metal acts after 1989, in my collection you will find maybe only 4 or 5 death metal albums i bought in 1990. And that is the TRUTH. It was horrible to see that a style that had died before my eyes (THRASH metal) was followed by yet another style that was dying; DEATH METAL. The party was mostly over, as most bands from that genre emraced the PLASTIC sound with triggered bass drums and clinical sound. Our rehearsal room was filled with other music. Cool stuff. Like AUTOPSY, CELTIC FROST/HELLHAMMER, MOTORHEAD, BATHORY and BLACK SABBATH. All our albums from the 80s was constantly listened to, and there was ALOT of black metal vibes in those albums. SO IT WAS DONE. in early 1990, after having written and recorded the whole GOATLORD album on cassette, Ted and Ivar (Nocturno Culto and Zephyrous) came and visited me in the rehearsal place (which was also my living room). They proposed that we should stop playing the technical death style and instead play PRIMITIVE STUFF THAT RIPPED!. And it was the answer to my dreams, as also i had dreamt of this for a long time. FINALLY! But Dag, our bassist, didn't want to go down that path, so we eventually parted ways after he played session bass on our "A BLAZE IN THE NORHTERN SKY" album. Because of our abrupt change, there is ALOT of death metal riffs on A BLAZE IN THE NORTHERN SKY, as we had already booked the studio time to record GOATLORD. We changed our direction so fast that if A BLAZE IN THE NORHTERN SKY would be PURE black metal, it would only have 3 songs; KATHAARIAN LIFE KODE, WHERE COLD WINDS BLOW and IN THE SHADOW OF THE HORNS. The other 3 songs are a wild mix of death metal and black metal vibes. Many people don't know this, and consider this album as pure black metal, but anyone who is into, i mean REALLY into metal, can hear that it is not so. No one at the time had PHOTOS OF ONE BAND MEMBER on the cover, and certainly not with corpse paint, so that started a whole new estetic that still lives on album covers to this day and will never stop. But it wasn't planned, i just decided that it was right to do it.

Most interesting about A BLAZE IN THE NORTHERN SKY is

1: it was the first time we incorporated a MOTORHEAD style part (IN THE SHADOW OF THE HORNS, start of the last "fast" part of the song"). ZEPHYROUS had written the first slow part of the song, i wrote the last "fast" part of the song, mid paced/fast every other turn there.

2: Also, deep into KATHAARIAN LIFE CODE, there is a riff that is "out of rhythm", but planned that way on purpose. that was directly influenced by the very same "time stretching" in one of the songs from CELTIC FROST's "Morbid Tales" album.

OUR FIRST TOTAL BLACK METAL ALBUM was UNDER A FUNERAL MOON. I was so ANTI on that album that i didn't even use any TOM TOM drums! Just one big floor TOM that i decided should be the loudest thing on the drums set, AFTER the hi-hat. I am still proud of my insane brain decision.

At that point in time, there was no such thing as "second wave black metal", we simply played BLACK METAL (1991) and only inspiration sources was ofcourse purely 80s, as there were no other bands playing black metal, the newest bands were SAMAEL "worship him" album, and the BLASPHEMY album. Oh, and "ritual" by MASTER'S HAMMER, which is actually the first norwegian black metal album, even though they are from Chechoslovakia. Later came the VON demo, the THORNS rehearsal, the IMMORTAL single, and most importantly, we all had "Live In LEIPZIG" by MAYHEM on CASSETTE, long before it was released on vinyl! And 1st BURZUM album finally came out.

Worldwide, black metal was almost completely dead, at that time i had to print MY OWN Celtic Frost t-shirt! Because it was impossible to buy. But a whole gang of us up here in Norway decided and felt that BLACK METAL MUST RETURN. All, and i mean ALL of the recordings all of us made had OLD and ORGANIC sound. When new recordings started to have the sound that DESTROYED thrash and death metal, i felt that also Black Metal was dying, and slowly the war against the modern sound became an obsession to me. This modern sound entered black metal in 94-95, and i could see the genre dying. After TOTAL DEATH album (which i wrote one THRASH metal song for, to make a point that we should go BACK in time again) i had done too much music and had a severe burn out, as i had made 11 or 12 albums in 3 years time (valhall, dødheimsgard, isengard, storm, neptune towers, AND various projects and also ofcourse darkthrone).

When we resurfaced after a break in 1997, it was Ted's idea. My songs was becoming more punk and black'n roll (the style that CELTIC FROST/HELLHAMMER basically started in early 80s) but i just wrote a few, Ravishing Grimness and Plaguewielder is largely Ted's albums, Transilvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust was 100% written by me. In 2002 i was back in business and HATE THEM was on the steps, drum sound was adjusted to be like "C'MON LET'S GO" by GIRSCHOOL and i wrote more freely, like i would have done in 1987 or 1988, meaning it was many styles, METAL, BLACK METAL, DEATH METAL, DOOM METAL, CRUST PUNK, you name it. Ted still made the style he had done on Plaguewielder and Ravishing Grimness, mostly! This combination of his songs and my songs has continued TO THIS DAY. But from 2005, Ted also writes more freely, and he now makes a very freestyle METAL mix of old black sabbath vibes, early 80s metal, thrash metal, death metal and also punk vibes. YES!

In 2005, Ted AGAIN came to me with a fantastic proposal: what if we bought our own portable studio? YES! YES!! YES!!! Finally what we needed in 1988 became reality! In 1988 we had very little money and to buy an own portable studio was out of our financial reach. BUT if we had it back then, things might have looked very different...ad different as THE CULT IS ALIVE, F.O.A.D, and DARK THRONES AND BLACK FLAGS! Yes, our last albums have been the continuation of THE OTHER PATH OF DARKTHRONE that we could have taken in 1988, had we had our own studio and the record collection we have now. And with our new album CIRCLE THE WAGONS (release February 2010), the new decade starts with our own brand of HEAVY METAL/SPEED METAL-PUNK.

Thank you for reading and CARING. Destroy their modern metal!!!

- f e n r i z

The Cult is Very much Alive

As you are no doubt aware, Thee Claw are hyowge fans of Darkthrone, throughout the different phases of their career.  

Tiding us over nicely between Dark Thrones and Black Flags and the next, as yet untitled (but probably recorded two years ago, knowing them) album, Ted and Gylve have worked with other artists for their next albums.

 

Nocturno Culto has just worked with Norwegian musician Sarke (Khold, Tulus, Old Man's Child and Sensa Anima) adding his vocals to an album of music and lyrics written by Sarke himself.  I've managed to get hold of a promo copy and I've been spinning it non-stop.  

It's a slightly more modern sounding album, in the vein of Khold, but with enough punky influences and black humour in the lyrics to not be too much of a departure for Mr Culto.  Ranging from mid-paced brooding songs to faster BM stylee, Sarke is every inch the musician you thought he was from his work with OMC, I just hope this one gets filed under "Sarke" as a new venture, and not under "Darkthrone".  Well worth getting, my copy is in the post now.  Check out the lyric "YOU'RE ALL OVER ME...LIKE AN OLD MAN'S DOG" hehe.

  

I haven't heard it yet, but Fenriz has teamed up with black metal LUNATIC Nattefrost  for the upcoming release Engangsgrill which I have on pre-order from Indie Records. fenriz' contribution is under the title Fenriz' Red Planet and contains three songs, and, according to the man himself: "“The songs are inspired by REVELATION 2nd and 3rd demo from 1987 (this band was later signed on Lee Dorrian’s label Rise Above, I think), BLACK SABBATH, TROUBLE, PENTAGRAM (USA), THE DOORS and also a song by SLEEP." Sounds pretty promising, my friends no?

I have no information on the Nattefrost side of the split, as the phenomenon I'm hoping doesn't happen to Sarke seems to happened here, the "Darkthrone Effect", and all I have is track names.  I expect the usual perverted black metal madness from Nattefrost here; after all, his fifth track on the split is called “Humiliated And Pissed Upon”. Expect a bit more when my copy arrives.

Link: Indie Records

Link: Sarke @ PHD

I Just Can't Get Enough Of.....

...Two albums that are often overlooked in the respective discographies of each band but are total classics as far as I'm concerned...Darkthrone - Panzerfaust

Total necro production, every time the vocals (which are harsh as hell) come in, the rest of the mix fades away. Sounds totally cold, like it was recorded in a dungeon, with absolute Frost worship throughout. The Most Hated Band In The World.

Sarcófago - The Laws of Scourge

Everyone always bangs on about INRI, which is an amazing, primitive and raw recording from these Brazilian metallers, but for me, the more slick total thrash of The Laws of Scourge are just as valid. People tend to big up INRI without even checking out the rest of Sarcófago's offerings.
This is an amazing LP worthy of finding, no doubt you'll only be able to get it through Rapidshare.

Hellbound Underground Sound

Last night, Thee Skum and I went along to Korova in Liverpool to check out a few bands, twas OK but the couple of pints of Hoegaarden listening to Lick and a Promise and The Chase is Better Than The Catch was a good time too!
Anyway, the main crux of today's post is something that came in today's post!

The much-anticipated (at Claw Towers at least) new Darkthrone album, Dark Thrones and Black Flags.
So what have Gylve and Ted come up with for us this time?
In short, this is one of my favourite Darkthrone albums for a long time, carrying on from the "new/old" style that's been obvious on The Cult is Alive and Fuck Off And Die. Anyone expecting a return to the so-called "classic" Peaceville trinity from 92-94 will be dissapointed, but Darkthrone care not for the likes of you.
Like the greatest albums of old, and following their recent tradition, the album is split into two "sides"; a bit unworkable on a CD unless you follow my advice; grab a cold beer or two and listen to the first five tracks, then pause the CD whilst you retreive a few more tins from the refrigerator/shed/hole in a frozen lake.
My CD comes in a super-crazy case that's going to be a nightmare to pull out of the shelf when I'm drunk, and contains some lyrics, and the usual remarks from Gylve Fenriz about plastic mr-fancy metal and satan's purse. No, really.
The Winds They Called the Dungeon Shaker starts the album off, an opening riff reminiscent of Burzum, some amazing clean-ish vocals from Fenriz here. He's really getting into the role of vocalist now and he has a surprisingly unique (and totally metal) voice. That riff is amazing, comes in again at 2.30, total evil sounding. Oh, and the title makes more sense when you realise it's delivered in the chorus as The Winds! They Called! The Dungeon Shaker!
Death of all Oaths (Oath Minus) is one of Nocturno Culto's trademark "finger-moving riff" songs, there's no lyrics included in the booklet, but it's a solid, old-sounding thrasher with a solo after a minute and a half that is totally necro - and some atmospheric evil sounds after two and a half minutes or so.
Hiking Metal Punks if a song with that title and the lyrics "MAMMOTHS OF THE FOREST....WORLDS COLLIDE" doesn't do it for you, then you're going to hate what Darkthrone are doing now. Fenriz wrote this one as well and his metal-scream half way through is amazing.
Blacksmith of the North (Keep That Ancient Fire) is another one of Nocturno's, which is again lyric-less in the booklet. This has a total fist-pumping, headbanger of a main riff, with evil vocals from Nocturno, reminiscent of Shut Up from the Cult is Alive. Norway in September closes side A, to me this is the most reminiscent of older Darkthrone material, but still with Ted's more gruff vocal style that he's used on the more recent records rather than the total black-metal approach of older ones, a great finger-moving riff on this one too...THE LARGER THE LIFE THE CLOSER IS DEATH....total thrashing riff at 3 minutes forty...
Now, more beer before I get into side B.....
Grizzly Trade
Hanging Out in Haiger
Dark Thrones and Black Flags
Launchpad to Nothingness
Witch Ghetto

Want That Shirt

Thee Claw Boys Cannot Fucking Wait For This Record

New Darkthrone album cover = Fucking Clawsome.

Hiking Metal Punks

Taken from the latest edition of TERRORIZER MAGAZINE (October 2008):

While the world is still waiting to hear 'DARK THRONES AND BLACK FLAGS', the fourteenth full-length DARKTHRONE offering, due in October, our correspondent Paul Schwarz got to hear a sneak preview and discovered that the next Darkthrone album is already on the way, all while half-way up a mountain in Oslo with FENRIZ and his hiking-buddy Mikael.

"The first song on our next album - not 'Dark Thrones And Black Flags', that was finished in July - its title is based on a mantra that Gezol of Japan (Sabbat, Metalucifer) has been saying a lot lately, 'Too much black, too little metal.' That's been the problem ever since '93. But you know, people have been taking care of that since the start of the new decade. Since 2000, there's so many youngsters who are really into the barbaric stuff again."

The sloppy sound?

"Yeah, very sloppy. I haven't practised since '93, just to get that sloppy. So whenever I play a song now it's like I'm walking without a compass. Like the song I have been doing now, 70 per cent of it is ready. I've had that much ready now for two months. I mull it over, again and again. Daily, or a day inbetween. I think of the song and I know what kind of tempo the last part will have, I just mull it over and hum along to what I have in my head. At this point, I still haven't picked up a guitar to try to do the stuff, because when I first do that I know I will finish the song."

Fenriz lets that bombshell drop and then reveals that he has a surprise. He is now going to play the first three tracks from 'Dark Thrones And Black Flags' for us and his friend Mikael Ohlsson, Professor of Ecology at the Norwegian Institue Of Life Sciences. We are all ears, especially considering how quiet it is in the near-wilderness of the forests surrounding Oslo. Packing the same pleasingly unclean sort of kick as last year's 'FOAD', opener 'The Winds They Called The Dungeon Shaker' has that same irrestibly catchy, anthemic quality that possessed the excellent 'Raised On Rock' - and has comparably spot-on, speaking-from-personal-experience lyrics, too.

"From the depths of the underground/Through the nurseries of real metal sound," the vocals howl at us. "It's 'cos we are part of the new underground from the 2000s," Fenriz explains, adding with a smile, "Nowadays, I write street lyrics."

It's a style which suits him, as 'FOAD' proved. Indeed, it makes sense of the fact that Norturno Culto and Fenriz now rigidly divide vocal duties, each singing their own songs. As that first track finishes, Fenriz reflects that the drumming at the end had something of a His Hero Is Gone feel. We nod in agreement and strain our ears: Nocturno Culto's contribution to this mini-listening session is up next.

'Death Of All Oaths' has a dank, dragging feel. Its vocals moan like an evil wind. Though less sparkling, it fits snugly next to 'The Winds They Called the Dungeon Shaker'. "Cosmos watching," the lyrics shriek, and Fenriz quips that this is actually a reference to Cosmo Kramer, from the 'Seinfeld' TV series. Really? No, he was just pulling our leg

"So the first song was mine, and this is of course Ted's," Fenriz confirms. "And then song number three is of course my hit song, 'Hiking Metal Punks'."

After the Kramer gag, we have to ask if he's serious.

"Well, it kicks ass, so it's serious."

He's not wrong. 'Hiking Metal Punks' is another stone-cold, rehearsal room-raised thrash rocker - the kind of thing Darkthrone have got impressively good at delivering of late. Fenriz explains a little of the philosophy behind their deliberately underground sound.

"Things changed around 89/90 and especially in the mid '90s, where everyone could get, like, a pro sound. Our first album, we just paid 1,000 quid for that studio session, and then we had that Entombed sound: that was like being professional. In the '80s, you had underground sound until you 'made it'. That all changed when you could get good sound for very little money. Once that happened, overground and underground became a choice, like you would choose to have underground sound, or you would choose to have overground sound. Then everybody could choose to be underground or overground sound."

That's the beginning of the deliberate underground.

"Yes. We're deliberate underground now. Basically, we just record in the way a demo would have been recorded in the '80s. Our albums now are just 35 or 40 minute long demos."

Other bands took a different route, one for which Fenriz has little to no time.

"A lot of bands chose to think, 'Oh, Transilvanian Hunger! If you play that twice the speed, with synthesisers, and a professional sound, it will be three times as good!' They make Disney version. When I first heard 'In the Nightside Eclipse' I was just like, 'Turn this off!' Everyone else was just like, 'What!? Don't you like this?' And I was just thinking to myself, 'Okay, we're on a different ballpark here.' And I just stick to myself and listen to thrash."

Here is the METAL MERCHANTS FESTIVAL

3 friends of mine are creating a hot spot for REAL TRUE METAL january 30/31 in Kanonhallen, Løren (just outside of Oslo) 2009.

this will be a treat for those of you who are tired of all the trend bands since the early 90s and long for the days of STEEL once again. please do not contact me about this glorious event, but CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LINE-UP:

http://www.myspace.com/metalmerchantsfestival

i will dj there with germany's no 1 metal hero GÖTZ from Rock Hard, but i am not there to talk - just to listen to what we play and bang my head. also you can just forget (as usual) about me playing any 90s stuff, i will just play songs by OMEN, THE BEAST, WARLORD, ATTACKER, MANILLA ROAD, WITCHFINDER GENERAL, BROCAS HELM, BLESSED DEATH, HELSTAR and a shitload of other METAL/THRASH/SPEED/EPIC/NWOBHM stuff.

Fenriz

Dark Thrones And Black Flags

Good news taken directly from Nocturno Culto's Myspace page:

Title: "Finally another album done"

This past weekend Darkthrone finished their 14th album "Dark Thrones and Black Flags". And please don't get carried away with the "darkthrone has gone punk" myth. Metal is heading your way in October I've been told. The album will contain 10 new rotten songs for you to digest. Fenriz and myself are very pleased with the result (just have to mix and add some bass and stuff for the last songs we just recorded) as usual. If we were not pleased with our work, we would have ended the band, we're not stupid (only slighly). More on this later.


Aura Noir is ready for a new release in late August, but I will confirm a date here on MySpace soon. This album will be a killer, and you have all something great coming your way. The few songs I've heard so far is fucking ACE, you better believe it. Abscess is gonna record another album this Autumn, and from what Reifert said......let's just say that I'm a happy fish right now. Also more on this later.

Darkthrone Frostland Tapes Microsite

Here

Sonic Attack Vs Fenriz

A four-part interview on YouTube with Fenriz from Darkthrone, during which he tells us he only likes new music if it's old, sings the Home and Away theme tune, proclaims himself to be "The John McEnroe of Black Metal" and discloses the fact that the new Darkthrone album will have "A lot of Iron Maiden" on it.
Oh, and at 4.10 in the first one, and at 5.12 in part 3, he turns into Scouse metal legend Thee Petch for a second or two, but that will only amuse you if you know him.

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four: