Rockfreaks.net

Throne of Katarsis

Helvete - Det Iskalde Mørket

Written by: EW on 07/03/2009 12:14:12

The second album from True Norwegian Black Metallers™ Throne of Katarsis is one of those where it's hard to find much to say about it. Not through being a terrible album, "Helvete - Det Iskalde Mørket" is just so BM to the core, so unequivocal in it's worship of Darkthrone and Burzum that anyone who likes this style will find much to appease in this record, whereas everyone else will probably have stopped reading by now. Consisting of 5 songs with an average song length of over 10 minutes (thanks mainly to the 17 minute title track), the path followed until almost the bitter end is harsh, dissonent and drowned in reverb, with all escapes to light on the other side locked shut with the key thrown away.

The reason "Helvete - Det Iskalde Mørket" is not as bad as so many other 'true' BM albums is that Throne of Katarsis know more than one speed. For the majority "The Darkest Path" is a medium pace trudging BM song, resting on the silently sombre riffing perfected by Varg Vikernes on any of the old Burzum albums you could care to mention. "Lysets Endeligt" mixes up the pace too, where even there is a brief period of cleaner (all relatively, of course) riffing hinting at the vibe so wonderfully created by Quorthon for his period of truly epic Bathory albums, nay, classics. The long songs allow ToK to utilise the variations in pace, giving the tracks time to breathe and become anything other than totally non-descript, which would have been the end result had we been looking at an album of 4-5 minute songs. The title song "Det Iskalde Mørket" is the most Burzum of the lot, from the distant riffing and simple hammering of the drums all the way to it's slower middle section. It is not until the end of this song and closer "Summoning The Horns" that any real movement from the strict template of underground BM can be found, where out of nothing all distortion fades away and the window to the world is opened, greeting us with cold ambient and acoustic guitars respectively for the two songs.

Easy assumptions can be drawn based upon a number of listens: fans of the underground BM spirit will warm to "Helvete - Det Iskalde Mørket", however given the abundance of numerous near identical bands/albums to this Throne of Katarsis will have to rely on luck for it to be noticed, however solid the record actually is. Meanwhile anyone not yet a fan of black metal is highly unlikely to change their mind with even 10 listens to the release of another Norwegian black metal band.

Download: Det Iskalde Mørket
For The Fans Of: Burzum, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date: 24.02.09
Candlelight Records