Review: Darkthrone – It Beckons Us All
Darkthrone’s career is the story of black metal itself: from death metal origins, through the stark second wave minimalism that defined the genre, into the crust-infused and doom-tinged experiments. Few bands in extreme metal can claim such longevity, and fewer still manage to remain relevant without pandering to nostalgia. “It Beckons Us All” arrives as another chapter in this slow evolution, neither a grand reinvention nor a lazy retread, but a crooked continuation of their ever-eccentric path.
The first impression is familiar: raw guitars drenched in fuzz, riffs that march instead of sprint, and a drum sound that embraces imperfection rather than polish. What differentiates this record from its predecessors is the sheer sense of weight. Where earlier albums channeled punkish immediacy or icy blackened repetition, “It Beckons Us All” often leans toward doom metal’s crawling pace and heavy atmospherics. It is a deliberate record, one that pushes back against the need for velocity and instead dwells in lumbering riffs and rough-hewn textures.
Songs like “Black Dawn Affiliation” showcase this balance between tradition and sluggish heft. The riffs nod toward Celtic Frost and Bathory, with just enough grime to keep the sound grounded in Darkthrone’s aesthetic of cultivated ugliness. Other moments, like the sprawling “The Bird People of Nordland,” veer into almost progressive territory, letting riffs stretch beyond their usual lifespan and build strange, looping structures. The result is at once engaging and uneven. When the ideas coalesce, the songs feel monumental. When they do not, the repetition can slide into tedium.
Production remains intentionally primitive. The guitars are a wall of distorted mud, the drums dry and unembellished, vocals a throaty echo buried just enough in the mix to sound spectral. This has always been Darkthrone’s hallmark, and to expect otherwise is to miss the point. Yet it also raises the same question that haunts each of their later releases: at what point does lo-fi ethos become limitation rather than liberation? On this record, the balance occasionally falters. Some of the riffs demand clarity they never receive, and the atmosphere sometimes tips into murk.
Lyrically, the band lean on their established mythos, with cryptic images of shadow, death, and mythic landscapes – but there’s a certain knowing wink in how it’s delivered. Darkthrone are veterans, and the theatricality of black metal dogma has long since turned into a canvas for their dry, ironic distance. This tension between sincerity and parody has always defined their later work, and “It Beckons Us All” carries that torch proudly.
Still, this is not an album that will silence skeptics. For every moment of brilliance, there is another that drags too long or leans too heavily on past habits. The record succeeds in atmosphere and in sheer commitment to its vision, but it lacks the vitality to push beyond. It is Darkthrone doing what Darkthrone does, with all the stubbornness and charm that implies.
