Where black metal and rock 'n' roll collide, it's not easy to find someone that does it better than Darkthrone. Old Star will be the veteran band's new album which takes the number of their total full lengths to an impressive eighteen, and it will be out on May 31, 2019 via Peaceville.
Old Star follows Darkthrone's excellent Arctic Thunder from 2016, and as Fenriz puts it, it will be a natural continuation from where they left things off. "Old Star — again we are here with the riffs!" he says. "A while after our previous Arctic Thunder, album it became apparent that we would continue in that same style, black old heavy metal with slow thrash, classic doom and slow death metal.
"As many have focused on the '70s sound over the last 20 years, the mix on our new album has ended up being more '80s than ever. The songs are more metal than ever! Ted's songs have alot of black metal in them, faster and slower but also doomier parts and reocurring parts. My songs are more linear written. It's an ancient '80s underground trick, with breaks, all slow heavy or slow thrash, classic doom or slow death."
The Hardship Of The Scots is an epic, seven and a half-minute piece which pretty much summarizes what the black metal old timer describes.
"All in all, it is our most '80s album so far," he concludes, "and our most metal one to date with drum sound typical for the '80s USA/German market and damned lyrics, which are all written by me. We feel that Old Star is the big brother of Arctic Thunder. More solid and with even better riffs."
The upcoming album was produced by the band's other half, Nocturno Culto, and mixed by Sanford Parker (Voivod).
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