Description
Black vinyl with gatefold cover and printed innersleeve
‘Under A Funeral Moon’ is widely regarded by both fan and detractor alike as Darkthrone’s crowning achievement, and insofar as their black metal releases. It is a notable departure for a band that spent the bulk of their early days attempting to outdo themselves technically, although it still retains a good degree of the competency that made their death/thrash influenced works so impressive. The character of the band’s production has taken on an even colder and more fuzz driven nature than the previous release, exaggerating the practices that were observed on early Celtic Frost and Bathory albums to the point of sounding like all the microphones and amplifiers are buried under 2 meters of snow. But the overriding ingredient in this frost coated brew is the melodic contours that shape many of the riffs and how well they play off the more thrashing ones. In the eyes of many ‘Under A Funeral Moon’ is seen as slightly inferior to their more renowned follow up ‘Transylvanian Hunger’, much in the same way that many see ‘Reign In Blood’ as Slayer’s crowning achievement while its predecessors were rungs on the ladder leading to it. However, if one looks at it from a stylistic viewpoint rather than one of catchiness, there is a good deal more going on here. It’s somewhat closer to the droning nature of Burzum’s albums at around this time if you look at certain individual riffs and songs, but there is still an overriding sense of structural development and contrast the keeps it outside of the drone realm. Probably the closest song on here to that minimalist sense of moving yet standing still is ‘Unholy Black Metal’, which essentially has 3 riffs that are drawn out to their fullest extent and ride over a continuous blast beat, but even here the band’s technical past still bleeds through with a couple of well placed guitar solos. Many have pointed to this album as being a large influence on the concept of bedroom black metal, mostly due to its really rough production, which is rivaled only by ‘Panzerfaust’ insofar as the band’s discography is concerned. It is important to note that although many of these hack bands attempt to imitate the general sound of this album, none of them possess the competence to match the guitar work on here. It’s not quite an album that could be considered ahead of its time like ‘A Blaze In The Northern Sky’ was, but more one that was in the right place at the right time. It’s the hardest of all of their releases to like, yet once fully understood, is the easiest one to completely love.
Track listing:
1. Natassja In Eternal Sleep
2. Summer Of The Diabolical Holocaust
3. The Dance Of Eternal Shadows
4. Unholy Black Metal
5. To Walk The Infernal Fields
6. Under A Funeral Moon
7. Inn I De Dype Skogers Fabn
8. Crossing The Triangle Of Flames