Review by Rexorcist for Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger (1994)

I never once expected Darkthrone to try and get more creative again after the samey and monotonous tertiary effort, Under a Funeral Moon, following the otherwise genius Blaze in the Northern Sky.  The most I could hope for in the instance of Transilvanian Hunger, the third in the classic string of post-debut Darkthrone albums, was that the production values were improved from the bad kind of lo-fi that drowned out the power of the percussion, as opposed to Blaze's lo-fi which improved it.  Thankfully, I got my wish in that department, but I also got what I expected.  These songs are all about molding anger and melancholy into one whole, album like a bunch of angry ballads.  There's a very strong atmosphere which the lo-fi does a better job with, making the percussions almost sound like heavy rain.  It could still be heavier, but it also worked for the atmosphere it was going for.  The writing was a bit better as well, featuring better riffs and rhythms.  Unfortunately, it was still a case of many songs basically doing the same thing or things.  This tells me that I'm never getting another Blaze in the Northern Sky from the very band responsible for it. I know I'm probably going to get some slack for ranking two of the three most classic Darkthrone albums among their modern works, but dammit I want my Blaze Pt. II.