Legends of Norwegian black metal and not only, the band Darkthrone released a record Eternal Hails last year. And now it became known that their new album, called Astral Fortress, will be released on October 28, 2022. The record will be released on the Peaceville Records label. The musicians themselves have described it as vintage, using a mellotron and synthesizer, and with lyrics that simmer in hell. A statement from the label said:
And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making.
This new studio opus, due for release on 28 October 2022, is a swift follow-up to 2021’s Eternal Hails opus, as a result of Darkthrone’s consistent and ongoing writing process, which has been in force for some years now.
For Darkthrone does not sleep – it only waits.Carried on the brisk wind of eager rock, with foundations in black, thrash, doom and heavy metal, Astral Fortress is the latest album of stellar, eclectic old metal in the Darkthrone odyssey. With a seemingly endless dungeon full of heavy metal influences channelled through Darkthrone’s dynamic riff-machine, plus also with many increasing inspirations taken from their own past catalogue.
Even though sprinkled with atmospheric touches such as synthesizers and mellotron on Astral Fortress to great effect, the Darkthrone sound remains stripped down to the core; always primitive and organic. Darkthrone has truly become its own beast within the metal world.
Fenriz himself commented on the album like this:
As usual, Ted makes music by playing himself and riffs just come to me. I think since 2016’s Arctic Thunder, we have mostly been inspired by our own back catalogue. I can hear many of my riffs eventually sounding like a plethora of bands but this seldom seems to correlate with what others hear. As you’ll know by now I never talk about the lyrics or the inspiration behind them and I would never want any lyrics that I like of others to be explained to me but I will tell you this, it is darker than ever, it is seething with hell.
Astral Fortress was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo, the same location used for the Eternal Hails album, with Ole Øvstedal and Silje Høgevold.
- 1. Caravan Of Broken Ghosts
- 2. Impeccable Caverns Of Satan
- 3. Stalagmite Necklace
- 4. The Sea Beneath The Seas Of The Sea
- 5. Kevorkian Times
- 6. Kolbotn, West Of The Vast Forests
- 7. Eon 2
