Darkthrone - Soulside Journey (1991)^{Release ID: 450}

I'd never given Darkthrone's debut album much of a chance until recently. It's kind of a strange first release for a band that would become famous and hugely influential for their raw black metal albums of years to come. Soulside Journey is almost completely unrelated to everything the band would ever do after its release. I guess I always assumed it would be a bit crap, otherwise why would Darkthrone completely change tact immediately afterwards. All this has turned out be incorrect though as Soulside Journey is a decent listen, and worthy of your attention, regardless of the future direction the band would take. It makes me wish they'd spent at least one more album experimenting with this sound before venturing off into darker, less structured territory.

The first thing a listener will notice is how much it sounds like Entombed and a multitude of other Swedish bands from the same era. It has that low tuned, dirty guitar sound and pummelling mid paced drums. But that's not to say that Darkthrone in death metal mode didn't have anything to offer as they certainly did. The atmosphere, technicality and song writing are all quite high and the riffs vary in speed throughout with quite a bit of this album being quite doomy alongside the death metal. The vocals are of the guttural variety and actually pretty good if not amazing. They even add a bit of keyboard for atmosphere here and there and it works well. If you enjoy early Entombed, Dismember, or any other Scandinavian death metal bands from this era, you should check Soulside Journey out. Highlights are Cromlech, Sunrise Over Locus Mortis, Soulside Journey, Neptune Towers and Eon.