Darkthrone - Panzerfaust (1995) Reviews

Convinced that I am still happier when I only have a small selection of quality albums to listen through at any given time as opposed to trying to capture every release available by my favourites, I have of late taken to basing much of my listening habits around the physical copies of albums that I have. Proudly sat amongst my vinyl collection is the much discussed fifth album by Norway’s finest, Darkthrone. Panzerfaust is an alienating and challenging affair to some who prefer a more polished approach to their music, yet for those that prefer things as extreme as they can be, it is perhaps a much more enjoyable affair.

I have read some reviews that suggest that Nocturno Culto was blind drunk when he recorded the vocals for this album. Others suggest that the album is the victim of a terrible mixing job. There are even those that seem to view Panzerfaust as the ultimate show of black metal ever committed to tape. Whilst there may be some truth in the first of the above claims (I have no idea obviously), I have more agreement with how the second statement could be deemed to be true and I outright dispute the third statement. This is a great metal album. Outright black metal, it is not.

My reviews of latter day Darkthrone releases have seen me speculate on how Fenriz and Ted’s recent output is a “thousand football fields away from their black metal days”. Whilst Panzerfaust does not quite stretch to a similar distance away from the ‘Unholy Trilogy’ of albums it is a release that explores a broader scope of music influences. With a punk attitude and at times a doom-laden limb or two disrupting proceedings, this is an album that perhaps first showcased the duo’s ability to look outside of the cvlt box they had a huge hand in creating in the first place. Soulside Journey had shown them to me more than capable musicians, but Panzerfaust was a different shaped ball than we were used to seeing them play with.

Inebriated or not, the vocals Ted lays down here are obtrusive to say the least. They have been described as “sabotaging” the riffs and drums by some and I do agree they are too far forwards in the mix at the expense of other instruments. However, in terms of getting their message across, they are an absolute success. Yet, despite their prominence in the mix, I take more away from the riffs on this album than I do anything else. The clumsy yet still contagiously doomy riff of The Hordes of Nebulah is with me for life, likewise the raging black metal charge of Hans siste vinter is permanently fixed in my memory banks for the remainder of my time on this mortal coil.

The sloppiness levels on Panzerfaust do seem a tad more uncontrolled than on later releases and this does diminish the experience of getting back-to-back quality tracks on either side of the vinyl. It is an album that revels more in the individual success of bits of tracks as opposed to breeding a handful of classics. Despite it clearly having its faults, Panzerfaust shows perhaps the most irreverence than we hear on many of the other albums in the discography combined. It might be more punk orientated irreverence than all out black metal misanthropic hatred but it still works and it is still Darkthrone.

Panzerfaust is like a Celtic Frost worship album. It's also the beginning of the end but contains enough good material to be somewhat relevant.

Panzerfaust is an odd album. It’s not a terrible album at all, but to me it represents the moment when Darkthrone began their downward spiral that appears to be continuing to this very day. With each album the band appear to care less and less about their creations and have become a bit of a joke to be honest. So, I guess it's hard for me not to hold a small grudge against Panzerfaust for its position in Darkthrone's discography. It was released the year after the excellent Transilvanian Hunger, and I'd had high hopes that it might continue the brilliant run that these Norwegian's had for the past 5 years. As it turned out, the album has some moments of Darkthrone glory, particularly during the first half, but appears slapped together and entirely unsure of what it was trying to achieve. In hindsight, Panzerfaust displays a band that feels inspired to do something different and yet isn't quite sure how to leave their legacy behind.

Within a few seconds of pressing play, it’s immediately apparent that this is Darkthrone, but there are some differences that stand out from previous albums. The production, while still being quite raw, has much more clarity, with the drums being quite upfront and distinguished. But the most striking difference is in the vocal department. Nocturno Culto puts in a rabid, seemingly drunken performance that is much lower in key than the typically black metal shrieks of yesteryear. There’s no doubt that it’s an effective style that works better with the new material, but the vocals are too high in the mix, overwhelming anything going on in the background. They strangely also appear somewhat separated from the rest of the production. It’s hard to explain what I mean by that (I’m no audio engineer), but the vocals feel as though they’ve been tacked on at the last minute and not really mixed in all that well.

The first 4 tracks are all pretty good, with En Vind Av Sorg and Hans Siste Vinter continuing with the style of Transilvanian Hunger. Triumphant Gleam is the first sign of Panzerfaust’s biggest influence. It just screams Celtic Frost with the riffs sounding like they could have been lifted straight from Morbid Tales or To Mega Therion. Somehow the band manage to make this sound work when combined with their more extreme black metal approach on this track, so things still bode well at this stage. The Hordes of Nebulah slows things right down to doom levels while still containing that Celtic Frost waver and works well enough if not setting the world on fire. Darkthrone were clearly attempting to let other influences encroach upon their previously “true” black metal attack and the first 4 tracks of Panzerfaust show that they were entirely capable of doing just that if they put their mind to it, without destroying the venomous spirit that pervades everything they’d ever created.

Unfortunately, tracks 5 to 7 are nowhere near as successful. Beholding the Throne of Might is more Celtic Frost worship but now they’re just taking the piss. Nocturno Culto sounds like he really is taking the piss, stopping in between drunken shouts to take another swig. In fact, the track sounds like a Celtic Frost cover of In the Shadows of the Horns from A Blaze in the Northern Sky and not a very good one at that. By this stage of the album I’m either wanting the old Darkthrone back please or considering putting on To Mega Therion to see if any of these riffs are plagiarism. Quintessence recovers a little bit of ground but then it sounds like something off the Burzum debut with an inebriated pirate launching a tirade over the top. Funnily enough, apparently the lyrics were written by Varg, and so this track seems to be some sort of Ode to Burzum, yet it has none of the subtlety that made that entity so mesmerising.

Finally, there is Sno Og Granskog. This closing instrumental just reeks of Fenriz and his Isengard project. It’s basically a few minutes of horns with some dude preaching over the top. It’s not particularly bad and is in fact quite atmospheric, but it’s not something you’d expect to find anywhere near a Darkthrone album. This may seem like I’m just whinging about the band moving away from their roots, but I think all these loose influences breaching Darkthrone are the first signs of the band not caring any more. With each successive album they would seemingly just throw random tracks together which the spend less and less time writing. I can feel that attitude on Panzerfaust, despite how enjoyable parts of it are. If I look at the album for what it is, it’s quite a decent one and so I will rate it accordingly.