Darkthrone – Goatlord (Original) – HeavyPop.at

by Oliver
on March 12, 2023
in Miscellaneous

Associatively, the packaging secretly promises a new one Run the Jewels-Album, yet actually serve Darkthrone here the so-called Originalversion of the often undersold oddity Goatlord.


In order to be able to understand the meaning of the publication of the record, one must of course read the history of Goatlord know at least briefly outlined: The work was written as a successor to the Darkthrone-debuts Soulside Journey originally recorded in 1990 and as an instrumental demo in late 1991 and early 1992 – but the Norwegian band then left the death path, reinventing themselves as a pioneering black metal group with the classic A Blaze in the Northern Sky new, and Goatlord first disappeared into the moth box.
Until it was released in 1996 (as not the second, but depending on the count, the seventh album), but meanwhile supplemented by 1994 recordings – and have always been very polarizing, also because Fenriz along with a few shouts from Gast Satyr dramatized into the grotesquely theatrical androgynous pitch shifting – vocals.

So now, behind the (super fancy, but somewhat generic and) subjectively incongruous new artwork by Zbigniew Bielak following performing at the Frostland Tapes a renewed appearance of the material, this time under the “Original„-Banner.
That means: The lo-fi sound is a bit duller this time, but due to the revision (“The tracks are taken from Fenriz’s original tape source and transferred/mastered by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmon“) nevertheless accentuated and the really great songwriting (rows of strong riffs, amazingly crafty rhythms and a wonderfully primitive melody in Death Doom) with the strong technique of Gylve Fenris Nagell, Cult Nocturne, guitarist Ivar Enger and bassist Dag Nilsen, who left their mark, on a pedestal. There are now numerous retained studio talks surrounding the raw recording sessions, as well as adaptations in the track listing: (almost) all songs have been renamed and (minus the final drum solo number) is an early version of A Blaze In The Northern Sky ( once more) part of the album.
Whether all these little things are enough to make this prolonged Original-Variant of Goatlord as essential and without a cash grab followingtaste, really only hardcore fans and completists have to decide for themselves, while contemporary casual listeners get their attention anyway Astral Fortress from the past year.

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