Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992)

Amidst the bitter wintriness that was Norway back in 1991, Darkthrone, after releasing a few demos and one album in the technical death metal style the past couple years, decided to take a new approach to their music. Slathered in black and white make up and inverted crosses; Fenriz, Zephyrous and Nocturno Culto left death metal behind, and thus the Norwegian black metal scene was set in motion.

Incorporating the sounds of Celtic Frost & Bathory, the poetry of Venom (although highly refined and more intelligent than our drunken Englanders), plus with their own vicious melodicism, ‘A Blaze in the Northern Sky’ was their creation. An obvious entry eventually on this blog, Darkthrone’s sophomore album is the quintessence of what black metal is and was meant to be.

Within this darkened opus of supreme black metal majesty Nocturno Culto’s malevolent voice shrieks wildly throughout the night, while wicked, perverse, rocking, buzzsaw guitar melodies allure the listeners ears, plus mid-paced to fast drumming and a rehearsal like production that’s often refereed to as being raw or necro sounding; A Blaze in the Northern Sky is all this and so much more. At times sounding ridiculously slow, evil and atmospheric, while at other times fast paced, rocking and with more than a few headbanging moments the album even occasionally takes a desperate dirge to depraved depressive areas.

Arguably the best black metal album ever, but then again Darkthrone inspired several others like Satyricon, Burzum and Immortal who made equally impressive albums the following year. A Blaze in the Northern Sky is indeed one of the essential albums of black metal, but nonetheless for many the following two albums from Darkthrone were even godlier and largely more truly blackened in sound.

Nevertheless, A Blaze in the Northern Sky has always been my favorite Darkthrone album as well as basically one of my all-time favorites albums in general. Truly the cornerstone of black metal and although it may appear rather harsh to those new to the genre, there isn’t any other album that could be a better starting point then this one.