DARKTHRONE — Soulside Journey (review)

DARKTHRONE — Soulside Journey album cover Album · 1991 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
J-Man
Soulside Journey shows the black metal pioneers Darkthrone in a different light than many casual listeners are familiar with. Before they went on to embrace lo-fi productions, fast tremolo picking, and corpse paint, the band actually sported a death metal sound that was heavily influenced by the Swedish scene at the time. Soulside Journey is an old school death metal album through and through, and any resemblance to Darkthrone's later works is nonexistent - the sound here contains the fat riffs, brutal production, and creepy atmospheres of many Scandinavian death metal bands at the time, but Darkthrone put their own spin on the genre to set them apart from the rest. While fans of the band's later output may have a tough time enjoying Soulside Journey, I think this is an absolutely stunning debut and one of the best death metal releases from the golden year of 1991.

The style of death metal that Darkthrone embraces on Soulside Journey is clearly Scandinavian, but it also doesn't sound like any other single band - the mildly technical, often cold and even occasionally progressive death metal here is distinctly Darkthrone's own, and I can only imagine what would've happened if the band decided to pursue this style on future releases. The band manages to achieve a cold and brutal sound with high levels of success, and the occasional keyboard flourishes help further accentuate the strange atmosphere of the album. Every song on Soulside Journey is also well-composed and memorable; each track contains plenty of killer riffs, and Darkthrone seems to have a very knowledgeable grasp on when to switch riffs and move on to the next section.

While later Darkthrone albums pride themselves on rather sloppy musicianship and lo-fi productions, neither of those are even remotely the case on Soulside Journey. I'm actually stunned by how accomplished the musicianship is here - just listen to Fenriz's killer drumming! The unit is as tight as can be, and Darkthrone consistently dishes out technical licks with an impressive amount of finesse. The fat and brutal production does have a rather raw sensibility, but every instrument is still clearly audible and powerful - this is exactly how all death metal albums should sound!

All in all, Soulside Journey is a pretty great debut from Darkthrone, and I can only imagine what would've happened if the band continued to go down the path established by this album. I'm assuming they still would've ended up being quite successful considering how excellent Soulside Journey is, but it looks like we'll never know. As it currently stands, Soulside Journey is an essential purchase for anyone interested in Scandinavian death metal, and I'd say 4 stars are very well-deserved in this case.
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