J-Man Not too long after the release of their debut demo, Darkthrone released another cassette demo in the form of a short, ten-minute long release entitled A New Dimension. While both are undoubtedly marred by terrible productions, there are a few notable differences between the band's first two efforts, especially the fact that this demo is entirely instrumental. With the problematic vocal effects found on Land of Frost now gone, it seems like Darkthrone has finally honed in on a few key issues with their debut, resulting in a demo that is a huge improvement over the previous one. A New Dimension is severely flawed and only recommended to die-hard Darkthrone fanatics, but this shows much more promise than their entirely dispensable effort from earlier in 1988.

Apart from the 47 introductory piece, this demo consists of only one instrumental track. There are plenty of solid riffs found throughout “Snowfall”, and it seems like the band have improved their songwriting skills quite a bit over the previous few months. The transitions between sections are rather disjointed, but there are enough good ideas here to keep boredom from ever settling in. My biggest gripe with A New Dimension is ultimately the terrible production, which (if you're listening through headphones) tends to drift from one side to the other without any rhyme or reason. Though I would say the production here is a slight improvement over Land of Frost, it's still far from competent.

A New Dimension isn't a particularly captivating listening experience, but it's a decent little curio that fans of Darkthrone may find mildly interesting. Though they still had quite a bit of work to do, it's clear that these guys were headed down the right path. Those interested in how Darkthrone progressed in the earliest portion of their career may want to lend an ear to this short demo, but keep in mind that this is virtually disposable for everyone else. I'd say 2 stars seems pretty fair.