Album Review - Darkthrone - It Beckons Us All....... (2024)
Darkthrone have been grandfathered in metal culture several years ago. By that, I mean Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have earned the right to do whatever the fuck they want and they will never not be cool. They indulged in that privilege for almost twenty years now, starting with the awesomeThe Cult is Alive in 2006. Darkthrone have been coloring their brand of black metal with anything ranging from crust punk to prog rock. On their new record It Beckons Us All……. I feel like it reached a point where they’re not metal anymore?
It Beckons Us All……. (with seven dots at the end) is forty-three minutes long and features seven songs that range anywhere from three to ten minutes. It oddly starts with keyboard on Howling Primitive Colonies, a fuzzy and distorted apocalyptic rock song featuring catchy and obsessive riffs and an almost spoken word vocal delivery. It’s really, really not heavy and it’s by design. It’s a conceptual song about a forgotten species. The imaginary is metal as fuck, but Howling Primitive Colonies is essentially a rock song.
Does it even matter? I don’t believe so, Darkthrone are pulling it off quite well while respecting their grim and unrelenting essence as a band. It is followed by the slightly more agressive Eon 3, where the guitar riffing reminded me slightly of… * gulp * Iron Maiden? It’s a very dislocated pieces that alternated between the aforementioned intricate riffing, long and atmospheric segments where the guitar lingers on while Nocturno Culto narrates and long instrumental passages. It's unlike anything they ever done.
The single Black Dawn Affiliation is one of the catchiest songs on It Beckons Us All……. It's also one of the most conventional modern Darkthrone songs on the record. It’s once again very influenced by old school heavy metal like everything they did in recent years, but they dialed down the intergalactic weirdo prog ideas on this one. The synth-infused bridge on this one is particularly fun and nasty. I know they're deliberately moving away from that sound, but it's been a while since Darkthrone's had this much bite.
Loved the operatic vocals at the end too. It’s something they should definitelty include more into their sound if they’re going full prog.
And In That Moment I Knew The Answer is a three minutes instrumental interlude that bridges both halves of the record. The dueling guitars are really fun and intricate and kind of melodic too? I know, right? This is so weird and new for Darkthrone. It reminded me of old instrument stuff In Flames used to make in the nineties. Maybe it's not as anthemic and fist pumping as what the melodic death metal legends used to do, but it's expansive and definitely as evocative. It anchors the mood of It Beckons US All…….
The other single The Bird People of Nordland is another spacey, atmospheric jacked up prog rock song where Nocturno Culto is narrating the existence of a forgotten specie. I love the vibe of this record as this somewhat intergalactic anthropology class. It’s so delightfully nerdy. The dueling guitars are quite omnipresent again (and serve as a counterpoint to Fenriz super basic drumming). It's a long song with many segments. I particularly loved the instrumental bridge with undistorted tremolo picking. It's a nice touch.
The Heavy Hand almost feels like it could’ve been featured on a Uriah Heep record in 1976. I believe it’s the drumming that rips the heaviness right out of It Beckons Us All……. It is such a simple, time keeping affair. The riffs are fine and perhaps some of the heaviest on the record, but remove the distortion and it becomes a rock song again. It also has a ridiculously catchy chorus. Love them or hate them, Darkthrone have moved from the most boilerplate black metal band into full weirdo territory over the span of their career.
Not many band can claim to have pulled it off successfully.
The closer The Lone Pines of the Lost Planet is the longest and most conceptual piece on It Beckons Us All……. It's also perhaps the best song? I love songs that patiently build up atmosphere and I was served by this oddball doomy cut. It has biting riffs and psychedelic grooves that keep building and building up to the record's ultimate climax. It's also oddly melodic at times. Eerie and intuitive songs like The Lone Pines of the Lost Planet are really what Darkthrone do best at this point. I’d take more of it.
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So, is this a good record? As disorienting as it was, I would say so. It might not be as cohesive as Astral Fortress was and the drumming straight up makes me wonder about Fenriz's health, but there’s something charming about the fragmented and experimental nature of putting out an oddball of a record like tt Beckons Us All……. this late in their career. Fenriz and Nocturno Culto really commit to the Lovecraftian graveyard prog sound too, which is paramount to its success. It works. It is strange as fuck, but it does.
