PART I. (1991-1994) PART II. (1995-1996) PART III. (1999-2004)
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Ravishing Grimness (1999)
Nahrané: December 1998 - April 1999 Produkcia: Darkthrone Vydané: 29th September 1999 (Moonfog Productions FOG023) Zostava: Fenriz (drums), Nocturnal Cult (vocals, guitars, bass) Zoznam skladieb: A1 Lifeless A2 The Beast A3 The Claws of Time B1 Across the Vacuum B2 Ravishing Grimness B3 To the Death (Under the King) CELKOVÝ HRACÍ ČAS 37:40
"Darkthrone are artists of the true black metal unlimited."
V roku 1999 som bol študentom tretieho ročníka bakalárskeho štúdia na vysokej škole, ktorú sa mi akýmsi zázrakom darilo absolvovať popri voľnočasových aktivitách. Tie pritom zaberali väčšinu môjho času. Z technologického pohľadu to bol prevratný rok. Zadovážil som si svoj prvý mobilný telofón Nokia 3110 a tak dohadovanie sa s kamarátmi na pivných stretnutiach nabralo úplne nový rozmer - už žiadne rendez-vous v random krčmách naslepo, ale živý pivný networking. Bol to tiež prvý rok kedy som začal aktívne používať internet - na univerzite v internetovej učebni sa mi podarilo pripojiť na internetové fóra, medzi inými aj na Type O Negative fórum, kde som sa na niekoľko rokov stal súčasťou komunity Type O Negative European Pumper Squad Division. Vďaka tomu som nielen spoznal TON fans z celého sveta, ale podarilo sa mi aj osobne komunikovať s niektorými členmi kapely. Na TON fóre mi Josh Silver osobne zagratuloval k narodeninám!!!
Jednou z hlavných voľnočasových aktivít, ktorej som sa venoval bol post gitaristu v kapele Ethereal Pandemonium (EP). Do kapely som nastúpil na jar roku 1998, týždeň pred koncertom v bratislavskom klube Duna, kde sme s EP pokrstili prvé kazetové demo "A Winter Solstice Eve". Krstým otcom dema, ktoré vyšlo na labeli manažéra kapely Darkoldusa Dark Night Sky Productions, bol Mary0, spevák kapely The Last Days of Jesus (TLDOJ), ktorá na akcii v Dune hrala tiež.
Do EP som sa dostal cez bubeníka Demogorgona, ktorý bol pravidelným návštevníkom krčmy U Matúša. Po tom ako z EP odišli bubeník a gitarista z úplne prvej zostavy a ostali len Vidar (gitara) a Nathuruss (basa, spev), dostal Demogorgon ponuku hrať na bicie. Keďže bol práve v štádiu zakladania vlastnej kapely s De Sade Soliloquay. De Sade si dal podmienku, že bubeník môže nastúpiť do EP len ak pôjde aj on ako spevák.
Chalani v EP boli o pár rokov mladší a asi si netrúfli povedať nie De Sademu, ktorý bol výzorom a správaním verný svojmu menu, a tak spolu s bubeníkom dostali aj sólo speváka a ako bonus vtedajšiu bubeníkovu priateľku Countess Ekorn. V tejto zostave, v ktorej bol na klávesoch aj ten, ktorého meno sa nevyslovuje, nahrali EP svoje prvé demo. EP mali za sebou pár koncertov v bratislavských kluboch - pamätné boli DK Vajnorská, Rock Pop Jazz a tiež Shitfest v Žiline, na ktorý šla z Matúša početná výprava - vďaka výtržnostiam vo vlaku bola na zástavkach rýchlika priebežne prerieďovaná železničnou políciou.
S Demogorgonom som sa na jar 1998 náhodou vybral ako doprovod na skúšku EP na bratislavských garážach, kde som ešte v ten večer od Vidara dostal pozvanie na post druhého gitaristu. Všetky moje dovtedajšie plány o zakladaní kapiel v tom momente zhoreli do tla. V tom čase bola EP jedna z mála aktívnych bratislavských blackmetalových kapiel s oficiálnym vydaním. Navyše mala veľký skladateľský potenciál a pódiovú charizmu, ktorá na koncerty priťahovala množstvo ľudí. Mal som 19 rokov a konečne som hral v kapele. Bol to splnený sen.
Necelý rok po vydaní prvého dema mala kapela dosť materiálu na to, aby sme v januári 1999 nahrali album Arcanum Lunae v šalianskom štúdiu Moonset. Do štúdia sme prišli na celý týždeň a ostali tam zavretí, až kým sme nemali nahraté všetky skladby. Album sa mastroval v Slovenskom rozhlase vo februári. Fotosession k albumu sme robili na internáte Mladá Garda, kde fotograf nepoužil statív a väčšina fotiek bola rozmazaná - napriek tomu skončili v booklete. Album vyšiel najrpv na kazete u Dark Night Sky Productions a o pár mesiacov neskôr aj na CD u českých Leviathan Records. Po albume nasledovali koncerty po celom Slovensku, ale aj v Čechách. Jednou z pamätných akcií roku 1999 bol koncert s Mystic Death vo Vrútkach, kde došlo k samopodpáleniu speváka Simargla. Vidar robil rozhovory so zinmi z celého sveta, vzťahy v kapele boli utužené mnohými koncertami a každodennými krčmovými seansami. Zdalo sa, že budúcnosť kapely môže byť už len lepšia.
Ravishing Grimness je prvý z štvorice albumov Darkthrone, ku ktorým som sa v čase keď vyšli dostával s oneskorením a venoval som im menej pozornosti než albumom z rokov 1992-1996. Dôvodom bolo z časti aj to, že originálne kazety som si prestal kupovať a na CDčka som nemal peniaze (cena CD bola 500-600 SKK, čo bola štvrtina môjho mesačného rozpočtu). Internet bol v plienkach a stiahnuť mp3 z Napsteru trvalo hodinu. Môj príjem novej hudby pochádzal z požičaných CDčiek od solventnejších kamarátov, ktoré som si nahrával na kazety a z nejakého dôvodu Darkthrone v mojom okruhu nepočúvalo veľa ľudí - nová vlna blackmetalistov nabehla rovno na Cradle of Filth, prípadne Emperor. Len Burzum si držal stabilný fanbase napriek výluke strunových nástrojov a úplnému prechodu na ambiento synthovú produkciu.
Ravishing Grimness vznikol po trojročnej pauze, ktorú mala kapela prvýkrát od plodných rokov 1991-1996. O väčšinu songwritingu sa postaral Nocturno Culto, keďže Fenriz údajne prechádzal dlhším vyhoretím. Album mi svojím feelingom pripadá ako epickejší Panzerfaust. Pomalšie až stredne tempové skladby v prvej polovici albumu vystriedajú rýchlejšie skladby v druhej. Epickosť albumu vyplýva zo zvuku, ktorý je podľa mna najlepší od čias Under a Funeral Moon a z energickej údernosti a melodickosti, ktorú pretavil Nocturno Culto do gitarových riffov. Repetetívnosť je do veľkej miery preč, šesťskladbový materiál je bohatý na množstvo zaujímavých blackových riffov a zmien tempa. Songwriting však nie je tak komplexný a chaotický ako na Goatlord alebo A Blaze In the Northern Sky. Ravishing Grimness v tomto ostáva verný priamočiarejšiemu black metalu. Za zmienku stojí hra na bicích, ktorá je miestami redukovaná na úplny základ bez výraznejších bubeníckych invencií. Priamočiary, jednoduchý black punkový fundament. V úvodnej Lifeless, ktorá je mojim highlightom albumu znie práskanie biča, Nocturno Culto tu znie trochu ako John Tardy na Slowly We Rot. Keď už porovnávam, tak záverečný riff To the Death (Under the King) mi pripomína Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark) od krajanov Immortal.
"I don't know how the standing is amongst people, but Plaguewielder and Ravishing Grimness were mostly my albums. Fenriz was a bit – how should I put it? – occupied at that time. We went to a place called Studio Studio, which was owned by a hard rock band from Norway called TNT. I remember Fenriz was very minimalistic. He had a small drum kit, one tom, one crash cymbal, and that was cracked. I saw this engineer walking past him several times, looking more and more strangely at him, and then actually said, ‘Are you really going to use that drum kit?’ And Fenriz was like, ‘Yeah.’ I guess that kind of suited those albums in the end, restricting himself on the drums." Nocturno Culto (SOURCE)
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Plaguewielder (2001)
Nahrané: June 2001 in StudioStudio Produkcia: Darkthrone Vydané: 10th September 2001 (Moonfog Productions FOG028) Zostava: Nocturno Culto (guitars, bass and sorethroat), Fenriz (hellbattery), Zoznam skladieb: A1 Weakling Avenger A2 Raining Murder A3 Sin Origin B1 Command B2 I, Voidhanger B3 Wreak CELKOVÝ HRACÍ ČAS 42:50
Začiatok nového milénia neprebiehal úplne podľa mojich predstáv. Najprv STU neschválila inžinierske štúdium pre môj bakalársky smer a ja som si po bc. štátniciach musel podať prihlášku na VŠ znovu do prvého ročníka. Uznali mi pár skúšok z prvých troch rokov, ale väčšinu som musel robiť odznova a k tomu množstvo nových predmetov. Chcel som si spojiť dva ročníky, aby som skončil nanovo začatú školu rýchlejšie, ale nepodarilo sa mi spraviť skúšky a tak som veľa z nich prenášal do druhého ročníka, kde som si opäť nahádzal skúšky z tretieho, pričom som stále mal pred sebou tie opakované, ktoré som si optimisticky pridal v prvom. Semestre matematiky, aplikovanej fyziky a iných inžinierskych predmetov plných zadaní, projektov, laboratórnych prác a písomiek mi dávali zabrať. Popri životnom štýle kde som zo žiadnych voľnočasových aktivít neubral to jednoducho nešlo a ja som sa topil v opakovaných termínoch a neustále balansoval medzi štúdiom a vyhodením. Z niektorých momentov z toho obdobia mám doteraz nočné mory.
Ethereal Pandemonium, ktorý doteraz fungoval ako namazaný kreatívny stroj na báze skvelého priateľstva, začala javiť prvé znaky opotrebenia. Album Arcanum Lunae bol prijatý dobre, koncertovalo sa čoraz viac aj v Čechách, kam sme cestovali na pas - českí colníci na hranici nám cestou tam aj späť kontrolovali sériové čísla nástrojov, rozoberali nám a našim spolucestujúcim nábojové pásy, dôkladne prezerali klincové náramky a blackmetalovú výstroj a keď hľadali drogy, nevynechali pri tom ani lepeňáky. Cesta autom na koncert z Bratislavy do Brna bola administratívnejšie a psychicky náročnejšia než dnešný let na Kanárske ostrovy s päťčlennou rodinou ...
Moja finančná situácia bola bezútešná. Brigády existovali viac menej len v tlačiarnach a Volkswagene a hraničili s otrockou prácou - ak človek zarobil za 10-12 hodinovú monotónnu manuálnu prácu 200-300 SKK, tak mohol byť rád. Nemal som nikdy peniaze, svoje prvé gitarové kombo Beck, ktoré som kúpil od Croma, s ktorým som absolvoval pár upratovacích brigád vo Volkswagene ("chalani, vy ste tie okná ešte viac zajebali") som splácal dva roky. Na nové struny mi ostalo málokedy - tie staré mi potom bežne počas koncertov praskali.
V tom čase začal u nás black metal priťahovať čoraz viac típkov, ktorí boli fascinovaní myšlienkami, ku ktorým sa z nórskej basy otvorene hlásil Vikerness, ale aj slovansko-pohanskými tradíciami a témami, ktoré sa objavovali v piesňach a vizuáloch Ethereal Pandemonium. Na koncerty kapely chodilo hlavne v Bratislave a Brne čoraz viac holohlavých individuí a hoci medzi nimi a väčšinou z nás nedochádzalo k žiadnej interakcii, povesť kapely tým značne utrpela a myslím, že to bol jeden z dôvodov jej predčasného konca (alebo skôr dlhej pauzy).
Po veľkej bitke U Matúša, ktorá začala tým, že som jedného pokročilého večera na záchode dostal nakladačku od dvoch čašníkov, sme sa s Ethereal Pandemonium a pár najbližšími kamarátmi kapely rozhodli, že tam prestaneme chodiť. Nový podnik, kam sme sa presťahovali bola Umelka na Šafárikovom námestí. Mali tu ríbezlák, ktorý sme miešali v pomere 4dl víno a 1dl kofola. V tom čase odišla Countess Ekorn zanechávajúc kapelu ako päticu bez ženského spevu. Naďalej bola s nami v Umelke, ale v kapele už nie. Počas skladania materiálu ďalšieho albumu, ktorý sa mal volať jesus.christ@hell.com, sme v skúšobni boli väčšinou štyria. Nathuruss - zakladateľ, spevák a skladateľ sa pomaly, ale isto vytrácal zo života kapely a trávil viac času s gotikmi v Black Rose pod Michalskou bránou. Počas nahrávania svojich partov v štúdiu Moonset nám oznámil, že odchádza. Vydanie nového albumu bolo na spadnutie a nálada bola pod psa.
Plaguewielder bol po hudobnej stránke následníkom albumu Ravishing Grimness. Šesť skladieb ako na predchádzajúcom albume, z toho päť z pera Nocturna Culta a jedna od Fenriza. Chladné premyslené riffy, v ktorých sa ako to pri Darkthrone býva zvykom dá pri každom počutí nájsť niečo nové, sú sprevádzané komplexnejším bubnovaním než na predchádzajúcom albume, kde Fenriz ponúkol úplný bubenícky základ. Spolu s výborným, vyššie než na Ravishing Grimness položeným vokálom, tvoria esenciu stredne tempového gitarového black metalu made in Norway. Z hudby, ale hlávne z textov je cítiť depres, prázdno a smrť. Ak sa v predchádzajúcej tvorbe (napr. na Total Death) objavili náznaky metalpunku a-lá Motörhead, Plaguewielder má od tohto feelingu ďaleko. Inšpirácia by sa dala hľadať skôr v prvej vlne black metalu, konkrétne Hellhammer prípadne raný Celtic Frost. V Raining Murder sa objaví dlhší sampel búrky, ktorý je príjemne ukrytý za druhou slohou, v skladbe Command sú sample výbuchov. Zvuk je čistý a hutný, preč sú časy lo-fi zašumenej produkcie, na ktorej si kapela zakladala v polovici 90s.
Po grafickej stránke je Plaguewielder prelomový, pretože kapela dala do bookletu prvýkrát od Under a Funeral Moon svoje fotografie a prvýkrát od Soulside Journey sú tu Fenriz a Nocturno Culto bez corpsepaintu. Kým Fenriz je verný svojej koženej bunde a kapsáčom, Nocturno Culto má na sebe zvláštny chlpatý kabát a pôsobí dojmom návštevníka ilegálneho rave festivalu alebo cosplay Star Wars.
"On Plaguewielder I used Fenriz’s girlfriend’s bass guitar. She’s a bassist and vocalist in a female band. That was a firebird Gibson form 67. That was a really good bass. Earlier on I don’t remember what I used. An ordinary heavy metal bass guitar. I don’t know. I don’t remember. Too much drinking and smoking." Nocturno Culto (SOURCE)
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Hate Them (2003)
Nahrané: December 2002 in Pan Lydstudio Produkcia: Darkthrone Vydané: 17th March 2003 (Moonfog Productions FOG032) Zostava: Nocturno Culto (guitars, bass and vocals), Fenriz (battery) Zoznam skladieb: A1 Rust A2 Det Svartner Nå A3 Fucked Up And Ready To Die A4 Ytterst i livet B1 Divided We Stand B2 Striving for a Piece of Lucifer B3 In Honour of Thy Name CELKOVÝ HRACÍ ČAS 38:47
"All lyrics written from beyond or through the stellar filth."
V druhej polovici roka 2003 som bol priamym účastníkom prudko degenerujúceho vzťahu, do ktorého som rok predtým dosť neuvážene a netriezvo vstúpil napriek teoretickým poznatkom a varovaniam všetkých muzikantov, ktorí zažili romantický vzťah v rámci kapely.
Začalo to tým, že sme v roku 2002 s oklieštenou zostavou Ethereal Pandemonium a partiou známych rozšírili naše krčmové pôsobenie z Umelky na Beermudský trojuholník Umelka, Stoka, Krym. V rámci spontánnej prezentácie našich očarujúcich persón došlo k osloveniu novej speváčky, ktorá predtým pôsobila v miestnych alternatívno-rockových kapelách. O nábor sa tradične postaral kapelný recruiter Demogorgon. Nová speváčka doniesla do kapely aj svojho brata, ktorý sa chopil basy a na novom albume nahrala spev do skladby Perinbaba. Ethereal Pandemonium boli opäť šesťčlenné teleso s novou skúšobňou v lepšej - menej plesnivejúcej časti Istrochemu.
Album jesus.christ@hell.com vyšiel v roku 2002 prvýkrát na domácom labeli Esprit, ktorý patril Darkoldusovi - manažérovi kapely. Prvá várka CDR bola zle napálená, nehral každý tretí disk a tak sa stiahli z obehu a vydal sa druhý náklad - tiež CDR, ktorý už hral asi dobre (neviem, lebo som ho nikdy nemal). Ďalšieho vydania sa album dočkal toho istého roku na kazete na Hiraxovom labeli HROM. Hirax neskôr vybavil aj licenčné CD vydanie u ruských CD Maximum v roku 2004.
Na jar 2003, pri nahrávaní videoklipu ku skladbe Wisdom, prišla kapela zo dňa na deň o speváka De Sade Soliloquay. De Sade s nami už rok, dva nechodil von a pôsobeniu v hudobnom telese sa venoval veľmi sporadicky, keďže mal vlastné voľnočasové aktivity, o ktorých sme mali len matné tušenie. Priame otázky ohľadom jeho pôsobenia v kapele sme neriešili, v tomto bol Ethereal vždy pasívny - buď si členom svorky a existuješ alebo nie, nič medzi tým. De Sade sa dovtedy väčšinou dostavil na koncerty Ethereal Pandemonium, ktoré aj odspieval. O jeho živote niečo naznačovala strelná zbraň a väčšie objemy peňazí, ktoré nosil pri sebe. Natáčanie klipu bolo naplánované na dva dni - v prvý natáčací deň - v pivnici domu na Nivách bol De Sade prítomný. Na druhý natáčací deň v lese na Borinke sa už De Sade nedostavil a na telefonáty a sms nám neodpovedal. Druhú časť klipu sme dotočili bez neho a odvtedy o De Sade Soliloquayovi už nikto nikdy nepočul.
V septembri 2003 sa nám dvom študentom z desiatich podarilo spraviť dekanský termín a vďaka tomu pokračovať vo štvrtom ročníku VŠ. Osem mojich spolubojovníkov v to dopoludnie odišlo z katedry pružnosti a pevnosti do vysokoškolskej Valhally - na základnú vojenskú službu. Táto "deka" bola jedným zo zlomových bodov môjho života. Dva príklady z troch, ktoré nam docent zadal nemali riešenie, k čomu sa dalo dospieť dôkazmi po hodinách komplikovaných teoretických výpočtov. "Je to slabé, ale môžete pokračovať v štúdiu. Tri mínus." Pocit, keď má vašu budúcnosť v rukách niekto, komu ste úplne ukradnutí, ma v snoch desí dodnes.
Koniec roka 2003 som prežil s úplne novými spolubývajúcimi v poloplesnivom podnájme na zasneženom a tichom Devíne. Bol som bez peňazí, bez roboty, rok a pol školy do štátnic, vojenčina netrpezlivo klopala na dvere a po dvoch rokoch sa konal Veľký návrat k nikotínu a jeho sexy kámoške Bronchitis Chronica ... Navyše som mal prvý krát od roku 1998 pocit, že sa do aktuálnej zostavy Ethereal Pandemonium nehodím. Nevedel som si celkom dobre predstaviť ako viac sa dá ešte klesnúť.
Album Hate Them bol nahraný za 26 hodín. Po dvoch ambicióznejších albumoch, ktoré na seba nadväzovali feelingom, zvukom, temnými existencionálnymi textami a premyslenejšími riffmi vzdávajúcimi hold prvej vlne black metalu su tu stretávame s materiálom, ktorý je priamočiarejší a agresívnejší napriek zväčša pomalším až stredne tempovým pasážam. Bicie, hlavne kopák, sú zvýraznené a dobre a zreteľne je počuť každý jeden úder. V niekoľkých skladbách sa objaví punkovo-crustová bum-čvach rytmika, ale aj disbeat. Basa duní spôsobom podobným Mayhemu na De Mysteriis ... - je to jednoliaty napätie vytvárajúci podmaz k barovým gitarovým akordom ktoré Nocturno Culto hrá svojim tradičným spôsobom. Mäkké skreslenie gitary vytvára príjemný až rockový zvuk. Na albume sú počuť všetky nástroje pričom vokál je na pomery Darkthrone mierne v úzadí. Texty na Hate Them mi pripadajú ako úryvky z halucinácií, skôr než príbehy respektíve ako paranoidné dezilúzie podané cynickým in your face slovníkom. Prihlásenie sa k starým koreňom, opovrhnutie trendami a vzdor jedinca ktorý už nemá ilúzie, ale odmieta sa vzdať starých hodnôt. Veľmi pekný hudobný odkaz na A Blaze ... je v záverečnej skladbe In Honour of Thy Name.
"If you study the cover carefully, you will see the cathedral towers inside the saw blade. That explains it all. But you can always say: hate 'Them', the King Diamond album. Hah." Nocturno Culto (SOURCE)
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Sardonic Wrath (2004)
Nahrané: April 2003 in Oslo Produkcia: Darkthrone Vydané: 4th September 2004 (Moonfog Productions FOG034) Zostava: Nocturno Culto (guitars, bass and vocals), Fenriz (primitive skin pounding and dictator vocals) Zoznam skladieb: A1 Order of the Ominous A2 Information Wants to be Syndicated A3 Sjak matt Jesu Krist A4 Straightening Sharks in Heaven A5 Alle gegen Alle B1 Man tenker sitt B2 Sacrificing to the God of Doubt B3 Hate is the Law B4 Rawness Obsolete CELKOVÝ HRACÍ ČAS 34:23
"This album is dedicated to the memory of Quorthon's Bathory."
V roku 2004 sa partia okolo Ethereal Pandemonium presunula do internetového kafé Netka na Obchodnej ulici. Ja som tam chodil pomenej, pretože som sa kvôli udalostiam z roku 2003 a ich sprievodným javom začal cítiť ako outsider. Vidar, hlavný mozog a leader kapely si veľmi zakladal na novom ženskom speve. Novú tvorbu do veľkej miery prispôsoboval feelingu kompatibilnému s možnosťami a vkusom speváčky. Nemal to jednoduché. Zmanažovať skupinu ľudí, z ktorých sa dvaja navzájom nemuseli, veľmi neprispievalo k morálke a atmosfére kamarátstva, na ktorej bolo fungovanie kapely dlhé roky postavené.
O skúšobňu v luxusnej - menej plesnivej časti Istrochemu sme prišli po jej vytopení, ktoré urýchlilo šírenie plesne v celom objekte. Nechať gitaru s novými strunami v skúšobni znamenalo, že cez noc sa struny a kovové časti obalili do vlhkého, smradľavého mazu. Nové miesto na skúšanie sa mi podarilo vybaviť na internáte Mladá Garda.
Z kapely som kvôli vzťahom a atmosfére chcel prvý krát odísť niekedy na jar. Vidar a ten, ktorého meno sa vtedy ešte vyslovovalo, ma vytiahli na pivo a motivačný pokec. Pamatám si na argumenty o dlhoročnom kamarátsve, novom albume, atď., ktoré ma presvedčili zostať, avšak trpká pachuť zostala.
V júni som zoštátnicoval a prvý krát v živote sa zamestnal v serióznej práci. S prvou výplatou som odkráčal do VÚB a zobral si úver na 50 000 SKK na dva roky, za ktorý som si kúpil sedemstrunovú gitaru Ibanez a od Tomaxa z Galadriel hlavu a kombo Hughes & Kettner.
Na jeseň som šokoval kapelu, keď som raz pri čakaní na skúšku na Mladej Garde oznámil, že sa dám ostrihať. Nikto mi neveril. Tak som ich v tom istom momente vzal do kaderníctva na Garde a opýtal sa kaderníčky či ma vezme. Súhlasila a hneď ma aj ostrihala na krátko.
Kapela stála celý čas bez slova vo dverách a pozerala s úžasnutým výrazom na to, čo sa deje. Na výrazy ich tvárí nezabudnem. Takto v roku 2004 skončili moje dlhé vlasy, ktoré som mal dlhé od roku 1992. Vlasy, kvôli ktorým som sa v trinástich rokoch bodol do dlane a krvou napísal prísahu na papier, že sa nikdy nedám ostrihať. Vlasy, kvôli ktorým som sa v roku 1996 na vojenskom odvode nechal preradiť na budúcu povinnú civilnú službu, ktorá mala trvať o rok dlhšie ako bežná vojenská služba...
Ostrihaný, zamestnaný s normálnym príjmom, s novou gitarou a aparátom za úver na dva roky som na jeseň 2004 prvý krát v živote ochutnával skutočný pocit slobody a nezávislosti. Všetky depky z nekonečného štúdia, problémov s ubytovaním, nepriaznivých vyhliadok do budúcnosti a zlých vzťahov v kapele boli zrazu preč. Slovensko bolo od mája v EÚ, atmosféra niečoho nového netušeného, čo som si celkom nevedel predstaviť, bola všadeprevládajúca, svet vyzeral byť OK.
A do toho mi v decembri prišiel povolávací rozkaz - posledný turnus vojenskej služby (jej zrušenie bolo ohlásené na letnom festivale Pohoda 2004), ktorá pre mňa ako civilkára bude trvať rok - s nástupom okamžite.
Sardonic Wrath, jedenásty album Darkthrone, vyšiel v septembri 2004, tri mesiace po smrti Quorthona. Často sa o ňom hovorí ako o poslednom blackmetalovom albume kapely predtým, než definitívne pootočila kormidlo do crustových vôd, v ktorých začala zachytávať prúdy tradičných metalových žánrov ako heavy, doom či speed metal.
V porovnaní s Hate Them pôsobí zvuk na Sardonic Wrath ešte viac lo-fi - produkcia po troch predchádzajúcich albumoch citeľne posúva latku späť smerom k A Blaze in the Northern Sky. Gitarové riffy sú jednoduchšie a vo väčšej miere postavené na repetícii, no ide o iný typ repetície než ten na kosť ohlodaný hypnotický raw black metal z albumu Transilvanian Hunger. Tu repetícia neslúži na navodenie tranzu, ale svojou naliehavosťou a spôsobom hry vytvára tlak, agresiu a konfrontáciu.
Textovo sa Fenriz posunul ešte ďalej od okultno-mystických obrazov ku cynizmu, pohŕdaniu trendami a odporu voči modernosti. Kým na Hate Them bolo pod cynizmom stále cítiť závan frustrácie a vnútornej dezilúzie, Sardonic Wrath na mňa pôsobí skôr ako výsmech kapely, ktorá sa už nepotrebuje pasovať do role strážcov hodnôt a tradícií žánru. Je to sebavedomý záznam kapely, ktorá so vztýčeným prostredníkom obracia list a posúva sa do novej etapy, pričom žezlo „múdrosti a pravdy“ prenecháva tým, ktorí ešte nepochopili, že prílišné uctievanie idolov a ideí zabíja tvorivú slobodu a namiesto rebélie produkuje len bezduché kópie existujúce na vypĺňanie vlastného bezcenného času.
"I remember after the recording of “Sardonic Wrath”, we thought “how the hell are we going to top this one?”, and we usually don’t think like that, but fuck yeah, we topped it big time (only our opinion)." Nocturno Culto (SOURCE)
Wikipedia, Rateyourmusic, Metal-Archives, Discogs
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Vďaka za support, Tom/EZR
Venované pamiatke Andrewa Orlocka (1984-2019).
Darkthrone is a band that has accompanied me through most of my life. That doesn't mean they were always my favourite band, nor that I accepted each new album uncritically when it was released. There were stronger periods and weaker ones. Regardless of where I happened to be in life, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto were working on yet another album that, sooner or later, always reaffirmed that Darkthrone have been my kindred spirits since 1992. I allowed myself to write a few words about my journey through my Darkthrone vinyl collection. Tom/EZR
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Ravishing Grimness (1999)
In 1999, I was a third-year undergraduate student at university, which I somehow managed to survive alongside my extracurricular activities. Those, in fact, took up most of my time. From a technological perspective, it was a groundbreaking year. I got my first mobile phone, a Nokia 3110, and suddenly arranging beer meetings with friends took on a completely new dimension — no more blind rendezvous in random pubs, but live beer networking.
It was also the first year I started actively using the internet. At the university computer room, I managed to connect to internet forums, among them the Type O Negative forum, where I became part of the Type O Negative European Pumper Squad Division community for several years. Thanks to that, I not only got to know TON fans from all over the world, but I also managed to communicate personally with some of the band members. On the TON forum, Josh Silver personally wished me a happy birthday!!!
One of my main extracurricular activities at the time was my role as guitarist in Ethereal Pandemonium (EP). I joined the band in spring 1998, just one week before a concert at the Bratislava club Duna, where we baptized the band’s first demo tape, A Winter Solstice Eve. The godfather of the demo, released on the band manager Darkoldus’ label Dark Night Sky Productions, was Mary0, singer of The Last Days of Jesus (TLDOJ), who were also playing that night at Duna.
I got into EP through drummer Demogorgon, who was a regular at the Matúš pub. After the drummer and guitarist from the original lineup left, leaving only Vidar (guitar) and Nathuruss (bass, vocals), Demogorgon was offered the drum position. Since he was in the middle of forming his own band with De Sade Soliloquay, the latter made it a condition that if Demogorgon joined EP, he would have to come along as vocalist.
The guys in EP were a few years younger and probably didn’t dare tell De Sade — whose appearance and behavior stayed true to his name — no. So together with the drummer they also got a dedicated frontman, plus Demogorgon’s then-girlfriend Countess Ekorn as a bonus. In this lineup, which also included on keyboards the one whose name is still not spoken, EP recorded their first demo.
They had already played a handful of shows in Bratislava clubs — memorable ones being DK Vajnorská, Rock Pop Jazz, and also Shitfest in Žilina, where a sizeable expedition from Matúš went along. Thanks to disorderly conduct on the train, the group was gradually thinned out by railway police at each stop.
In spring 1998, I randomly accompanied Demogorgon to an EP rehearsal in the Bratislava garages, where that very evening Vidar invited me to join as second guitarist. All my previous plans of starting my own bands burned to ashes at that moment. I was 19 years old and playing in a black metal band. At the time, EP was one of the very few active black metal bands in Bratislava with an official release. On top of that, they had huge songwriting potential and stage charisma that attracted a lot of people to their shows. A dream come true.
Less than a year after the first demo, the band had enough material to record Arcanum Lunae in January 1999 at Moonset Studio in Šaľa. We arrived there for a full week and stayed locked in until all the songs were finished. The album was mastered at Slovak Radio in February. The photoshoot for the album took place at the Mladá Garda dormitory, where the photographer didn’t use a tripod and most of the pictures came out blurry — yet they still ended up in the booklet.
The album first came out on tape via Dark Night Sky Productions and a few months later on CD through the Czech label Leviathan Records. The release was followed by shows all over Slovakia and the Czech Republic. One of the memorable gigs of 1999 was with Mystic Death in Vrútky, where singer Simargl set himself on fire. Vidar was doing interviews with zines from all over the world, relationships within the band were strengthened by countless shows and daily pub sessions. It seemed the band’s future could only get better.
Ravishing Grimness was the first of four Darkthrone albums that I discovered with a delay and paid less attention to than the records from 1992–1996. Part of the reason was that I had stopped buying original tapes, and CDs were too expensive for me (500–600 Slovak crowns, roughly a quarter of my monthly budget). The internet was still in its infancy, and downloading an MP3 from Napster could take an hour.
My intake of new music came mostly from borrowed CDs from better-off friends, which I copied onto tapes. For some reason, not many people in my circle listened to Darkthrone — the new wave of black metal fans had gone straight to Cradle of Filth or Emperor. Only Burzum maintained a stable fanbase despite abandoning string instruments and fully transitioning into ambient-synth production.
Ravishing Grimness was created after a three-year break — the band’s first pause since the highly productive years of 1991–1996. Most of the songwriting was handled by Nocturno Culto, as Fenriz was reportedly going through a longer burnout period.
In terms of feeling, the album strikes me as a more epic Panzerfaust. Slower to mid-tempo songs in the first half gradually give way to faster material in the second. The epic quality comes partly from the sound, which to me is their best since Under a Funeral Moon, and partly from the energetic punch and melodic instinct that Nocturno Culto poured into the guitar riffs.
The repetitiveness is largely gone. This six-track record is rich with interesting black metal riffs and tempo changes, though the songwriting is not as chaotic or complex as on Goatlord or A Blaze in the Northern Sky. In that sense, Ravishing Grimness remains faithful to a more straightforward form of black metal.
Worth mentioning is the drumming, which at times is stripped down to its barest essentials, with little technical flourish — a direct, simple black-punk foundation. In the opening track Lifeless, my personal highlight of the album, you can hear the crack of a whip, and Nocturno Culto sounds a bit like John Tardy on Slowly We Rot. And while we’re making comparisons, the closing riff of To the Death (Under the King) reminds me of Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark) by their countrymen Immortal.
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Plaguewielder (2001)
The beginning of the new millennium wasn’t unfolding quite the way I had imagined. First, the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava did not approve an engineering continuation for my bachelor’s program, so after finishing my bachelor’s degree I had to apply to university all over again — back into the first year.
They recognized a few exams from the previous three years, but most of them I had to retake, along with a whole set of new subjects. I wanted to merge two years together to finish the newly restarted degree faster, but I failed some exams, so I carried many of them into the second year, where I piled on third-year exams as well, while still having the repeated ones from the optimistic overload I had given myself in the first year.
Semesters full of mathematics, applied physics, and other engineering subjects packed with assignments, projects, lab work, and written exams were taking their toll. Combined with a lifestyle where I had cut down none of my extracurricular activities, it simply wasn’t sustainable. I was drowning in retake deadlines, constantly balancing between studying and being thrown out. Some moments from that period still come back to me as nightmares.
Ethereal Pandemonium, which until then had functioned like a well-oiled creative machine built on strong friendship, started showing its first signs of wear. The album Arcanum Lunae had been well received, and we were playing more and more shows, especially in the Czech Republic — back then still requiring passports.
At the border, Czech customs officers would inspect the serial numbers of our instruments both on the way there and back, dismantle ammo belts belonging to us and our travel companions, carefully examine spike bracelets and black metal gear, and when searching for drugs they didn’t skip over disassembling even sandwitches. Driving from Bratislava to Brno for a gig was more administratively and psychologically exhausting than flying today to the Canary Islands with a family of five.
My financial situation was hopeless. Student jobs were more or less limited to printing houses and Volkswagen, and they bordered on slave labor. If you earned 200–300 Slovak crowns for 10–12 hours of mind-numbing manual work, you considered yourself lucky. I was constantly broke. I spent two years paying off my first Beck guitar amp, which I bought from Crom after surviving a few shifts with him at Volkswagen ("Guys, you've managed to make those windows even dirtier."). There was rarely enough money left for a fresh set of strings, so the old ones regularly snapped during concerts.
Around that time, black metal in our scene started attracting more and more guys fascinated by the ideas that Varg Vikernes openly preached from his Norwegian prison cell, as well as by the Slavic pagan traditions and themes that appeared in Ethereal Pandemonium’s lyrics and visuals.
At least in Bratislava and Brno, more and more shaved-head individuals started showing up at our gigs. Although there was little direct interaction between them and most of us, the band’s reputation suffered heavily because of it. Looking back, I think that was one of the reasons for its premature end — or rather, its long hiatus.
After the great brawl at the Matúš pub — which started one late evening when I got beaten up in the toilet by two waiters — Ethereal Pandemonium and a few of our closest friends decided to stop going there. Our new base became Umelka, at Šafárik Square. They served blackcurrant wine there, which we mixed in a ratio of four deciliters of wine to one deciliter of Kofola.
Around that time, Countess Ekorn left the band, reducing us to a five-piece without female vocals. She still hung out with us at Umelka, just no longer in the band. While writing material for the next album, which would eventually be called jesus.christ@hell.com, there were usually only four of us in the rehearsal room.
Nathuruss — founder, singer, and songwriter — was slowly but surely fading out of the band’s life, spending more and more time with goths at Black Rose under Michael’s Gate. During the recording of his parts at Moonset Studio, he told us he was leaving. The release of the new album was just around the corner, and morale was at rock bottom.
Plaguewielder was the musical successor to Ravishing Grimness. Six tracks again, like on the previous album — five written by Nocturno Culto and one by Fenriz.
Cold, calculated riffs — the kind where, as is often the case with Darkthrone, you discover something new with every listen — are accompanied by more complex drumming than on the previous record, where Fenriz had stripped things down to their barest essentials. Together with Nocturno Culto’s excellent vocals, pitched slightly higher than on Ravishing Grimness, they form the essence of mid-tempo guitar-driven Norwegian black metal.
From the music — but especially from the lyrics — you can feel depression, emptiness, and death. If earlier records (for example Total Death) hinted at traces of metalpunk in the vein of Motörhead, Plaguewielder is far removed from that feeling. Its inspiration seems closer to the first wave of black metal — specifically Hellhammer or early Celtic Frost.
In Raining Murder, there’s a long storm sample cleverly hidden behind the second verse; in Command, there are explosion samples. The sound is clean and dense — the days of lo-fi, noisy production, which the band had embraced in the mid-90s, were gone.
Visually, Plaguewielder was a turning point as well. For the first time since Under a Funeral Moon, the band included photographs of themselves in the booklet, and for the first time since Soulside Journey, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto appeared without corpsepaint.
While Fenriz stayed loyal to his leather jacket and cargo pants, Nocturno Culto wore a strange furry coat and looked like either a visitor at an illegal rave or someone doing a Star Wars cosplay.
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Hate Them (2003)
In the second half of 2003, I found myself directly involved in a rapidly deteriorating relationship — one I had entered the year before rather recklessly and not entirely sober, despite all the theoretical knowledge and warnings from every musician who had ever experienced a romantic relationship within a band.
It began in 2002, when the stripped-down lineup of Ethereal Pandemonium and a circle of acquaintances expanded our pub-based operations from Umelka into the “Beermuda Triangle” of Umelka, Stoka, and Krym. During one of our spontaneous exhibitions of charming personalities, we approached a new singer who had previously been active in local alternative rock bands. As tradition dictated, the recruitment was handled by the band’s in-house recruiter, Demogorgon.
The new singer also brought her brother into the band, who picked up the bass, and she recorded vocals for the song Perinbaba on the new album. Ethereal Pandemonium was once again a six-member entity, with a new rehearsal room in the better — less mold-infested — part of Istrochem.
The album jesus.christ@hell.com was first released in 2002 on the domestic label Esprit, owned by Darkoldus, the band’s manager. The first batch of CDRs was badly burned — every third disc wouldn’t play — so it was pulled from circulation and replaced by a second run, also on CDR, which supposedly worked fine (I wouldn’t know, I never owned one). Later that same year, the album also came out on cassette via Hirax’s label HROM. Hirax later arranged a licensed CD edition through the Russian label CD Maximum in 2004.
In the spring of 2003, while filming a video for the song Wisdom, the band lost singer De Sade Soliloquay overnight. By that point, De Sade hadn’t been hanging out with us for a year or two and only sporadically participated in band life, as he had his own extracurricular activities — about which we only had vague suspicions. We never addressed his status directly. Ethereal had always been passive about these things — you were either part of the pack and existed, or you weren’t. Nothing in between.
Up until then, De Sade would usually still show up for Ethereal Pandemonium gigs and sing his parts. Certain details of his life were hinted at by the handgun and large amounts of cash he carried around. The video shoot was planned over two days — on the first day, in the basement of a house in Nivy, De Sade was there. On the second day, in the woods of Borinka, he simply didn’t show up and stopped answering calls and texts. We finished the second half of the video without him, and nobody has heard from De Sade Soliloquay ever since.
n September 2003, only two out of ten of us students managed to pass the dean’s exam and continue into the fourth year of university. That same morning, eight of my fellow combatants left the Department of Elasticity and Strength of Materials for the university Valhalla — compulsory military service. That “dean’s exam” became one of the turning points of my life.
Two out of the three problems the lecturer gave us had no solution — something you could only prove after hours of complicated theoretical calculations.
"It’s weak, but you may continue your studies. Three minus."
The feeling of having your future in the hands of someone to whom you mean absolutely nothing still haunts my dreams.
I spent the end of 2003 living with completely new roommates in a half-moldy rental in snowy, silent Devín. I had no money, no job, a year and a half left until final exams, the army was impatiently knocking on my door, and after two years came the Great Return to nicotine and its sexy companion Bronchitis Chronica...
On top of that, for the first time since 1998, I felt like I no longer belonged in the current Ethereal Pandemonium lineup. I couldn’t really imagine how much lower things could sink.
Hate Them was recorded in 26 hours. After two more ambitious albums linked by their feeling, sound, dark existential lyrics, and more elaborate riffs paying tribute to the first wave of black metal, here we are confronted with material that is far more direct and aggressive despite its mostly slower to mid-paced passages.
The drums — especially the kick — are pushed to the forefront, and every single hit is heard clearly and distinctly. In several songs, punk-crust “boom-cha” rhythms appear, as well as disbeat. The bass rumbles in a way reminiscent of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem — a unified, tension-building undercurrent beneath the bar-chord guitars that Nocturno Culto plays in his traditional style.
The soft guitar distortion creates an oddly pleasant, almost rock-like sound. On this album, every instrument is audible, while the vocals, by Darkthrone standards, are slightly buried in the mix.
The lyrics on Hate Them feel to me like fragments of hallucinations rather than stories — paranoid delusions delivered in a cynical, in-your-face vocabulary. A reaffirmation of old roots, contempt for trends, and the defiance of an individual who no longer has illusions but refuses to abandon old values.
There’s also a beautiful musical callback to A Blaze in the Northern Sky in the closing track In Honour of Thy Name.
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Sardonic Wrath (2004)
In 2004, the circle around Ethereal Pandemonium relocated to the internet café Netko on Obchodná Street. I went there less often, because after the events of 2003 I felt like an outsider among them. Vidar, the main brain and leader of the band, placed a lot of importance on the new female vocals. He shaped much of the new material around a feeling compatible with the singer’s abilities and taste. He didn’t have it easy. Managing a group of people, two of whom openly disliked each other, did little to help the morale and atmosphere of friendship on which the band had operated for years.
We lost our rehearsal room in the luxurious — meaning less mold-infested — part of Istrochem after it got flooded, which accelerated the spread of mold throughout the building. Leaving a guitar there with fresh strings meant that overnight the strings and all metal parts would be coated in damp, foul-smelling slime. I managed to arrange a new rehearsal space at the Mladá Garda dormitory.
Because of the relationships and the atmosphere, I wanted to leave the band for the first time sometime in spring. Vidar and the one whose name was still spoken at the time took me out for a beer and a motivational talk. I remember the arguments about long-standing friendship, the new album, and so on, which convinced me to stay, however bitter taste remained.
In June, I passed my final exams and got my first serious job. With my first paycheck, I walked into VÚB bank and took out a loan of 50,000 Slovak crowns over two years, which I used to buy a seven-string Ibanez guitar and, from Tomax of Galadriel, a Hughes & Kettner head and combo.
In autumn, I shocked the band when, while waiting for rehearsal at Mladá Garda, I announced that I was going to cut my hair. Nobody believed me. So I took them that very moment to the hair salon at the dorms and asked the hairdresser if she could take me. She agreed and cut it short on the spot.
The band stood there in silence the whole time, staring in amazement at what was happening. I’ll never forget the expressions on their faces. That was the end of my long hair in 2004 — hair I had worn since 1992. Hair over which, at thirteen, I stabbed my palm and wrote a blood oath on paper that I would never cut it. Hair for which, in 1996 during military conscription, I arranged to be reassigned toward future civil service as a conscientious objector so I’d never have to cut it.
With my hair cut short, a steady job and a regular income, a new guitar and a Hughes & Kettner rig bought on a two-year loan, I got my first real taste of freedom and independence in the autumn of 2004. All the gloom from endless years of studying, housing problems, an uncertain future, and the deteriorating relationships within the band suddenly seemed to disappear. Slovakia had joined the European Union that May, and there was a sense that something entirely new was beginning. I couldn't quite imagine what the future would look like, but the feeling was everywhere. For the first time in a long while, the world seemed to be alright.
Then, in December, my draft notice arrived.
I had been called up as part of the very last intake for compulsory military service—the final one before conscription was abolished, a decision that had been announced during the summer at the Pohoda 2004 festival. As a conscientious objector, I was to serve one year of civilian service, starting immediately.
Sardonic Wrath, Darkthrone’s eleventh album, was released in September 2004, three months after the death of Quorthon. It is often spoken of as the band’s last black metal album before definitively turning the wheel toward crust waters, where they began catching currents from traditional metal genres like heavy, doom, and speed metal.
Compared to Hate Them, the sound on Sardonic Wrath feels even more lo-fi — after the previous three albums, the production noticeably pushes the bar back toward A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The guitar riffs are simpler and more heavily built on repetition, but it is a different kind of repetition than the stripped-to-the-bone hypnotic raw black metal of Transilvanian Hunger. Here, repetition does not serve to induce trance; through its urgency and manner of execution, it creates pressure, aggression, and confrontation.
Lyrically, Fenriz moves even further away from occult-mystical imagery toward cynicism, contempt for trends, and resistance to modernity. While Hate Them still carried an undercurrent of frustration and inner disillusionment beneath its cynicism, Sardonic Wrath strikes me more as mockery — the sound of a band that no longer needs to cast itself as guardian of the genre’s values and traditions.
It is the self-assured statement of a band turning the page with its middle finger raised, stepping into a new chapter while leaving the sceptre of “wisdom and truth” to those who still fail to understand that excessive worship of idols and ideas kills creative freedom and, instead of rebellion, produces only lifeless copies existing merely to fill their own worthless time.
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