Under a Funeral Moon

Occupation

• Vocals, electric bass: Ted " Nocturno Culto " Skjellum
• Lead Guitar: Ivar " Zephyrous " Enger
• Drums, Vocals: Gylve " Fenriz " Nagell

Under a Funeral Moon is the third studio album by the Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone. It was released in June 1993, the British label Peaceville Records.

For the band, this album is powered on after the A Blaze in the Northern Sky change of style early consolidation with respect to occupation and style. Only in 1996, guitarist Ivar " Zephyrous " Enger the band; at the same time continued with the album that began with the previous album musical line.

Formation

After the recordings of their previous album, A Blaze in the Northern Sky in the summer of 1991 the band was busy writing songs for the follow-up work. Unlike its predecessor, now no longer the band was indicated as the author of the plays, but the individual members. A total of four songs by Gylve " Fenriz " Nagell were composed, and two each from Ivar " Zephyrous " Passenger and Ted " Nocturno Culto " Skjellum. Fenriz also wrote all the lyrics, where he fell back on older material from 1990.

Was again included in the Creative Studios in Norway Kolbotn. As a new engineer working with a named " Vidar " person, otherwise the band was responsible for all aspects of the albums production. Again, it was a black and white photo of a band member, Nocturno Culto here, chosen for the album art; by posturing with a scythe, photography seems to be inspired by the figure of the Grim Reaper. The inside cover shows the image Taakeferd (fog Travel ) by Tania Stene, which was, among other things, images of Ulver, and recalls the style of the works of Theodor Kittelsen.

The album was released in June 1993 as a black CD to Peaceville Records, a second edition of the album artwork on the CD was sold by Music for Nations. In addition, partially limited LP editions appeared; the first pressing was a big poster. 2001 a new edition appeared in slipcase, before it was re-released in 2003 as in all other works album in digipak and a video interview expanded. In addition, there appeared a limited edition of 1000 pieces Picture- LP.

Title list

Total playing time: 40:41

Style

After the rather long pieces on A Blaze in the Northern Sky, the trend is here again to partially shorter songs. Stylistically, the band has, however, changed somewhat: the formative production has been maintained and in some cases even more pronounced, but at the same time the riffing emancipated more of the templates from the Death - or even heavy metal and stressed strongly the dissonant component. The musical structures clearer again, which means based on riffs and tempos less strong contrasts - Further, - also due to the shorter songs. Sometimes this is referred to as minimalism or monotony or seen as a reference to the punk. When drumming Fenriz renounced toms, with the exception of a large Bodentom, which should be the loudest part of the drums on the album by the hi-hat.

Lyrically, the line of the previous album is maintained. With Inn i de DYPE skogers favn is the first time a song in Norwegian contained on a Darkthrone album. The lyrics to Crossing the Triangle of Flames, Summer of the Diabolical Holocaust and The Dance of Eternal Shadows were recycled in 1996 partly for the album Goatlord.

Reception

Immediately upon publication of the opinions about the album were shared. Frank Albrecht of the German magazine Rock Hard criticized the lack compared to the previous variety and rated the album with only 5 out of 10 points:

"This time DARKTHRONE had too few good ideas, have tried to copy itself, so I can do the band a favor and hate the album., Under A Funeral Moon ' is a classic own goal, and that is punishable by five points. "

In retrospect, the album is, however, shown a positive and put on a par with other genre classics by bands like Burzum or Mayhem:

" Barney end drumming of Fenriz, the vocals by Nocturno Culto [ ... ] and the riffs of Zephyrous created something that was better than anything that Norway made ​​at that time and that is inclusive, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas ' and ' Det Som Engang Var ' [ ... ]. Surely a classic, and even if it is not perfect for me, so it 's better than almost everything that came out after it was made. "

Sources and links

• Under a Funeral Moon on the label website (English)

Soulside Journey ( 1991) | A Blaze in the Northern Sky ( 1992) | Under a Funeral Moon (1993 ) | Transilvanian Hunger (1994 ) | bazooka (1995 ) | Total Death (1996 ) | Goatlord (1996 ) | Ravishing Grimness (1999 ) | Plaguewielder (2001 ) | Hate Them (2003 ) | Sardonic Wrath (2004 ) | The Cult Is Alive (2006 ) | FOAD (2007 ) | Dark Thrones and Black Flags ( 2008) | Circle the Wagons (2010)

• Album ( Black Metal )
• Album 1993
• Darkthrone album