Darkthrone – Panzerfaust (1995)

October 27, 2020

UUUGGGHUHHUGGGHUHGGHHHHH!

Panzerfaust sees Darkthrone applying the breaks a little after searing through a trilogy of some of the grimmest and most frostbitten fucking metal in the history of music. Yes, the shoddy production and insaaaaanely cold riffs are still front and centre, but one cannot shake the absolutely atrocious vocal performance on display here.

It’s easy to forgive bad vocals in something like black metal, but this is Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto we’re talking about here; an absolute legend of a performer with one of the genre’s defining trademark wraith-on-acid snarls. On Panzerfaust, the vocals sound like Tom G Warrior is being fucked in the arse with a cactus.

IDK, maybe I’m getting old, but with time I’ve come to appreciate Panzerfaust, warts and all, for the black metal masterpiece that it is. I implore you to look past the often horrendous vocals, to the stunning compositions beyond.