DARKTHRONE — Under A Funeral Moon (review)

DARKTHRONE — Under A Funeral Moon album cover Album · 1993 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Under a Funeral Moon" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal act Darkthrone. The album was released through Peaceville Records in February 1993. It´s the succcessor to "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" from February 1992 and features one lineup change as lead vocalist/guitarist Nocturno Culto also handles the bass on "Under a Funeral Moon". Bassist Dag Nilsen was already out of the band when they recorded "A Blaze in the Northern Sky", but did record the bass parts for that album. "Under a Funeral Moon" would be the last Darkthrone album to feature guitarist Zephyrous. On all subsequent releases the band would be a duo consisting of Nocturno Culto on vocals, bass and guitar and Fenriz on drums (and occasionally vocals, guitars, and bass).

The music style on the album is raw and simple old school black metal. The production is lo-fi, distorted, and thin, the vocals are raspy snarling and the playing is organic. It´s a continuation of the style initiated on "A Blaze in the Northern Sky", but Darkthrone have now completely shed the last ties to their death metal debut album "Soulside Journey" (January 1991, Peaceville Records). So this is 100% raw, cold, and old school black metal developed from the sound of Bathory, Hellhammer, and of course Darkthrone´s countrymen in Mayhem.

"Under a Funeral Moon" is arguably an extremely influential second wave black metal release, and thousands of black metal acts have since been inspired by the lo-fi sound production, the relentless rawness and cold distortion, but also the relatively simple songwriting and organic delivery. It´s a completely different aestethic to the sharp precision playing and clear and detailed sounding productions of some of the more melodic and symphonic inclined black metal acts from the same era (an in direct opposition to the increasinly technical playing of contemporary death metal acts).

I´m not sure my ears hear great musical art here, but I understand that those who seek the most grim, raw, and lo-fi sounding savagery find this a great release. So take my rating with a grain of salt. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted and I even do feel I´m stretching a bit here.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Somehow I knew I was gonna get some comments on that review :-)
Vehemency wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Always interesting to see reviews that don't rely completely on saying "it's a classic so 5 stars warranted" hehe!

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