You should spent more time listening to proper metal instead of reading reddit/9gag.

I guess it would be an improvement for some poeple, but I think the weird/bad-ness of the vocals is a selling point to the post-DTaBF era Darkthrone fans. Those shitty cleans that may have ruined Circle the Wagons for some has a sort of outsider trad. metal quality that makes it sound different and maybe even cool to people like Jonpo and Subrick. That said, if you think bm vox over trad. metal riffs sounds like a cool idea then maybe you might want to look into Countess (the dutch one). As long as you avoid the interesting, but very very bad first album and can stand the drum-machine, you may like it. Orlok has a kind of weird, off-putting vocal style, though.

Speaking of Countess: that new Countess album had better be out by year end, goddamnit. Oh, and the new Darkthrone song is cool too.

Yeah I think the weird/bad vocals really lift it out of the other masses of retro heavy metal bands around. And the chorus vocals are straight up awesome, no goofy cheesy ironic enjoyment, just straight up badass.

Not as bad as I was reading.

Listened to it twice. Awesome. I'll be buying the album.

Yeah it's awesome.
And I recommend everyone to take everything vengefulgoat writes with a bucket of salt. I've been "clueless at metal" since the 70s apparently.

Excellent, this is exactly the direction I was hoping they'd continue in! Good stuff. Not great stuff, but it's got me pretty excited about the album anyways.

Forty years and you still can't filter the shit out? Wow.

Yeah! Isn't it amazing!? Actually we're a bunch of people who actively look to you for guidance; everything you dislike just must be good! My shit-filtering is really flawed, since I can't even filter out the huge chunks that constitutes your much appreciated input.

Hahah, man, I love that you pop up to make a post like once every three months and then immediately say something that resonates with me! I absolutely love amateurish vocals that try to overcompensate with passion. I've actually not put any time or effort into checking out newer Darkthrone though. I've heard a bit of Circle the Wagons and dug it, but never pulled the trigger on a copy.

I've decided I'm not even going to bother with sampling this one. Veracs and vengefulgoat sold me on it. I'm just going to buy it.

Listened to the song a few more times - It's grown on me a bit, and I think I've worked out what my remaining issue with it is. The instruments, particularly the vocals in relation to the rest, don't really feel "joined together" in the way that the last few albums did. I'll wait until I hear the album properly though.

All right!

Obviously I enjoyed that. The first half is pure speed metal and really sounds like Agent Steel, and especially Exciter. In fact, the whole speed metal bit had such a big Exciter vibe, right down to the vocals, which, by the way, are no worse than Exciter's were in the 90s with their second or third singer (what the fuck ever), and the music is a good deal better. The riffs here are very basic and not really that special, but the thing is the vibe and the propulsive energy, which the song has in spades.

Then we settle down into mid-paced groove followed by a more rock-infused, Celtic Frost-ish section. This bit rules and the riffing is by contrast here quite memorable. Good leads, nice sound as has already been mentioned. I'm sure the album will have a few more faces, too--remember this is only a taster. I'm pleased.

Fenriz's falsetos aren't bad! Maybe he's been practising doing this sort of thing...

That song is tons of fun. Loved the first half much more than the second half, I thought the clean vocals sounded wicked. I'll definitely buy a copy of the full album

The first part is pretty cool, kind of reminds me of Manilla Road's thrashier stuff with a little Agent Steel in there. The Celtic Frost section sounded a bit lacking though. Still, look forward to the album. I've really liked Fenriz' songs on the last couple.

Man, this song is awesome! I really liked the vocals, I'm right there with Jonpo with the passionate bad vocals, I like them for the same reason I like Quorthon voice. Power & doom are the "purest" metal genres if you will (you won't) and Darkthrone heading this way makes sense. I would like in the album more parts like the first half, but that's just me.

Now this is something I was hoping Darkthrone would eventually do. Instead of just hinting at that they like to play 80's USPM and Mercyful Fate type stuff, they just go straight for it. Kinda generic as far that style goes, but at least now they're not beating around the bush. Fenriz also has a surprisingly good voice for this style.

Oh, and whoever said this is an insult to old-school heavy metal: I'm sorry you stubbed your vagina on your way to listen to this. Just put some ice on it and don't listen to this record when it comes out; that painful sensation in your groin area should go away fairly soon.

Nice argument, poser. Go back when your knowledge about heavy metal music is at least good enough to participate in actual discussion.

From Culto's Facebook.

I could care less if my knowledge of heavy metal music is "good enough". You saw that I said this song was pretty generic for the style, right? Or did you skip over that in hopes to kvlt all over my face? I was just pointing out that the way you replied was pretty funny. This is the internet, remember? I actually kind of agree with you for the most part, but I think those same reasons are why I can almost get behind this completely. Almost. I would of course take the classics over this anyday of the week.

Wow, now i'm a little apprehensive, since I found the current song length to be a bit too long already...

Shit, that song is actually 14 minutes long? Why?

Because Satan's Fall!

There could be more parts to the song..... I hope.

I sure hope so! Seriously, if for whatever reason Darkthrone manages to pull off a song of that magnitude...I dunno. I highly doubt it, but we shall find out! I just hope Fenriz sings the way he does in this song throughout the whole album. The poser in me really enjoys it!

This is actually exactly the direction I hoped the new album would take after reading the initial interviews. The black/crust/punk thing was fine by me but still felt limiting, that they could have done more instead of simplifying things. Perhaps even forcibly. The combination of power and doom influences is one that never seems to be tapped into as often as I'd prefer, much less by bands generally considered outside of those genres to begin with.

I get where the gripes are coming from that Darkthrone was at its best playing strictly black metal and that those '90s albums are their defining legacy, which I feel they are too. That being said, they've been moving so far away from that specific sound for so long now and so enthusiastically that an attempt to recreate any one of them at this point in time (Who's to say down the road?) would be forced as hell. If you think modern Darkthrone is shit, so be it. This won't change your mind and neither will the band's intentions. Those of us that do embrace it do so for what it is because they've become something that's not only different, but done well where others haven't.

This is pretty impressive. Gotta love the feel of the whole thing. Fenriz doing clean vocals again? Sweet! And that CF bit at the end is great. Can't wait to hear the whole thing!

Boohoo!

The song is great and I was not expecting it. It sounds awesome and I like it more then their recent output. Looking forward to this.

I've always held the belief that "Panzerfaust"'s riff-leeching was, in part, a spiteful reaction of Darkthrone against deriders insisting that, culminating in "Transylvanian Hunger", the band had strayed completely from real metal: a fist to the face, so to speak, which was to prove that not only could Darkthrone still play damn heavy metal, but also, in paying more than direct tribute to their essential influence, Celtic Frost, that they had been doing so all along, regardless of the evolution of their sound from "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" onwards.

A snarky endeavour - and perhaps a similar reason was behind the choice of "Leave No Cross Unturned" as a promotional track for the album: to provoke (I mean, come on: they're even rehashing a riff from "The Cult of Goliath") the audience to leap to conclusions, "Seen that coming from a mile away!", because many people probably already have very settled expectations as to what kind of an album "The Underground Resistance" will be and what Darkthrone have become over the past few years.

And perhaps they're right and I'm just delusional, and Darkthrone actually have become a county fair heavy metal band. The last album I thoroughly enjoyed was "The Cult is Alive", what followed mostly bored me - I cannot say that "Leave No Cross Unturned" instills me with great expectations. Not at all, it bores me, too, like most of what Darkthrone did after "The Cult is Alive".

Oh well, good bye, Darkthrone, it was fun while it lasted.

Glad I wasn't the only one who thought of CF when I heard this song. Going to listen to it again on my lunch.

Great song, listened to it last night at a friends house. Good to know that some bands play heavy metal because they enjoy playing heavy metal and listening to heavy metal makes them want to play heavy metal. Nothing makes me happier then an album full of songs about heavy metal and or heavy metal type things all joking aside.

I'll remind everyone that the 2 haters of this song are Veracs and Vengefulgoat, well known assholes, eh

Fuck, this is awesome!!!! DARKTHRONE!!!!!!

Fantastic song so far! The faster first couple of minutes had me headbanging, and Fenriz' vocals were really awersome. He did a similar falsetto in "Dommedagssalme", an Isengard song. The mid-paced part was better than I had hoped. They really nail this type of riffs.

(spoiler)
When Fenriz chants "Nocturno Culto..." I was actually expecting N.C. himself to begin "singing" in a black metal rasp.

I dig this song for the most part. The music is good, though derivitive, but it's the vocals that kill it for me. Fenriz used to be a decent vocalist, but now his singing sounds almost like a parody of 80's metal bands. I'd much rather have N.C. do all the vocals as his are typically better and suit this style much better.

I really, really like the new track. It sounds like everything that is good about old school metal put in a blender and belted out with tons of passion, love, and just a hint of a tongue in cheek attitude. Color me impressed.

Haha, the full song is actually 14 minutes long? Let's face it, it's going to sound like a bunch of different songs cut and pasted together. The clip they posted already sounds disjointed.

I think the song flows pretty nice. You can make all the assumptions you want and cry about them not being black metal or whatever but it doesn't change a thing.

That track length -- the year the plague hit Norway -- suggests it was deliberate. I'm guessing x amount of minutes of noise or backmasking or something silly like that. Though if they managed to write a song that was exactly 13:49 long, and/or it was a coincidence, color me amazed.

1349 already did that though and they suck.

I have to say that this song sounds fucking killer, quite suprised, but hell I like it!

Vinyl needs to be ordered ASAP!