Review by Ben for Darkthrone - Panzerfaust (1995)

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.