Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Darkthrone - Panzerfaust (1995)
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.