Thulcandra

This is my first real foray into Darkthrone; I've tried before, but I thought it was just blah. Now, I've started with this demo and I liked it (not love it). It's more than ok, but not really great.

The first problem I have with this demo is the vocals: they are annoying and I hate them! I'm glad that those are sparsely and rarely used (the first track doesn't have them - a relief indeed!).

The second one is about the length: if they have cut the whole demo by 2 minutes it would have been great, not that I don't enjoy it as it is! I think it's maybe because of the many mid-tempo passages. The intro's, outro's and (on the title track's) middle parts of the songs have some of them, although I like the atmospheric middle section of the title track. This track has a black metal feeling here and there, but so are the rest of the tracks.

The title track is the best one here and, although it has the holes of the other two, here they are crucial in the song structure (like that saying: "the garbage of one is another one's treasure"). I think I'll give this track a 9: I hate the vocals and it distracts the listeners from hearing the riffs, wich are very good (also, the drums are played by a very competent drummer).

The rest of the tracks are kind of satellites, "spinning" around the title track. I don't want to say that they are similar, but it seems that the song structures are kind of the same (without the atmospheric middle segment), with the occasional exclusion of an detail (like the vocals on the first track) and the atmospheric effects (made by the guitarists - not the studio or synth effects!) on the last track; also the title track's beginning is very similar, if not identic, with Mayhem "Ghoul" (!).

One thing I admire about this band is that, although they have released some very good records, technically speaking, they left this direction and enter the black metal sphere, proving that music is not dictated by the technicity of a song, but by the mood it creates; so, while listening to this band's later outputs, I realise what a slap in the face these guys give to the ones that listen/compose to/the music, just for the sake of complexity and disregarding the magic that the music is creating. Music isn't notes; the notes are music!