Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger (1994)^{Release ID: 453}

Venomous and evil, Transilvanian Hunger is shockingly under-produced yet hugely effective. A black metal classic!

Transilvanian Hunger was difficult to swallow when I first listened to it back in the day. I remember thinking "oh shit, they've really taken the lo-fi thing too far this time" and I seriously thought I was going to regret purchasing it. But I still own it today and don't regret it one little bit! In fact, I think Transilvanian Hunger is one of their best and the band really nailed what they were obviously trying to achieve with Under a Funeral Moon. Combining repetitive cold riffs with relentless drumming, evil black metal vocals and an extremely raw, underproduced sound may seem completely obvious today to black metal fans. But Darkthrone took it to an extremity no-one else had dared (at least purposely anyway) with this album and deserve credit for creating something beautifully horrendous in the process.

I personally enjoyed Under a Funeral Moon but did find it to be a bit weak sounding at times. While Transilvanian Hunger drops the production even further into the abyss (you can even here the amps being turned on and off), they somehow managed to make it a lot more impacting. Nocturno Culto's vocals are extremely high in the mix and yet they are so evil and venomous that I wouldn't want it any other way. Fenriz was pretty much the sole songwriter and musician at this stage handling all instruments. His drumming is adequate if unspectacular and really acts as a backdrop for all the incredible riffs he was cranking out. Just about every single riff is classic black metal fare here and they're really what put this album head and shoulders above so many other imitations that have spawned since its release.

Transilvanian Hunger isn't quite deserving of full marks for me. It's extremely close, as tracks like Skald av Satans sol, Slottet i det fjerne, As Flittermice as Satans Spys and of course the title track are all fantastic. But I have to say the album does become a bit one dimensional when listened to in its entirety. It's an extremely important and influential release, but I think A Blaze in the Northern Sky was even more-so and contained more variety in structure. I'd probably list it as my second favourite Darkthrone album, released when the band took their art seriously, unlike the circus act they have become today.

If I was asked to name the one album that epitomises black metal for me, then Transilvanian Hunger would be my reply. For this, Darkthrone's fourth full-length and the third instalment in their "unholy trilogy", Fenriz wrote all the music for the album and performed and recorded all the instruments himself on four-track in his home studio setup, suitably named Necrohell Studio by the band. He also wrote the lyrics for the first four tracks, with Varg Vikernes contributing lyrics for tracks five to eight. At this point Darkthrone were a bit up in the air as guitarist Zephyrous had left after the release of Under A Funeral Moon and Fenriz and Nocturno Culto weren't even living in the same town. So Fenriz wrote and recorded the album on his own and then sent it to NC and asked him if he wanted to perform the vocals which, obviously, he did.

The first thing that strikes the listener is the sound of the album. The production is the absolute dictionary definition of the necro sound that so many black metal bands have striven towards. The raw, stripped-back sound has a savage iciness that, for my money, has often been copied, but has never been equalled. The decaying frostiness of the production isn't all there is to Transilvanian Hunger however, because this is not only the finest collection of black metal riffs ever committed to disc, it may well be the greatest album of metal riffs of any colour, full-stop. Fenriz' genius here is in writing riffs that are simple, memorably melodic and, yes, even catchy, but he delivers them in such a way, mainly thanks to the production, that they take on an inherent "evilness" that epitomises early second wave black metal better than anything else I have heard. Another small, but very clever, touch is how there is a degree of tension built by the pauses between tracks which are just a bit too long and discomforting. When it comes down to it, Transilvanian Hunger is quite simple. There is very little by way of tempo variation and the drums and bass don't do anything fancy, no complicated bass runs or drum fills are required because the riffs and to a certain extent the production, are the real focus here. Of course, Nocturno Culto puts in a great turn on vocals and his performance perfectly complements the tone of the instrumentation, exuding evil contempt with every cracked, sneering shriek.

The album was not without controversy upon it's release however. The original version's back cover sporting the legend "True Norwegian Black Metal" also had the expression "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" ("Norwegian Aryan black metal"). The band also issued a very unfortunate press release concerning the album, containing a phrase I have no intention of repeating here. Thankfully, Fenriz quickly repudiated any connection to nazi philosophy and has since distanced himself even further by calling these comments disgusting and pointing out that many of us are assholes when young and say and do things we are later not proud of. The penultimate track, As Flittermice as Satans Spys also ends with the backwards-masked message proclaiming "In the name of God, let the churches burn", which I am sure wouldn't have gone down well in Norway at the time.

All this adds up to an album that can rightfully claim a place as a truly important release in the history of metal and is, for me, the most succinct expression of black metal's second wave, standing like a towering giant over the eviscerated corpses of any and all pretenders.