Darkthrone - "Goatlord", 1996

Dakthrone's "Goatlord"—titled after the Las Vegas cult doom/death band of the same name—was an instrumental rehearsal tape from 1991 that remained unpublished until the band decided to unearth it and release it on Moonfog in 1996, with newly recorded vocals by drummer Fenriz. It was essentially a demo for songs originally intended to be professionally recorded as the band's second full-length album, envisioned as a follow-up to their debut, "Soulside Journey." The project was scrapped when key members Gylve Nagell, Ted Skjellum, and Ivar Enger chose to adopt a rawer, more primitive musical style, inspired by 1980s bands like Bathory and Celtic Frost, as well as by what Euronymous of Mayhem—and other musicians in the Norwegian scene—were developing at the time: black metal, the Norwegian way. Gone were the trendy death metal influences, casual clothing, technical proficiency, and the standardized HM-2-driven sounds of Sunlight Studios; the renamed trio—Fenriz, Nocturno Culto, and Zephyrous—went on to release the classic "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" in 1992, one of the first true Norwegian black metal albums. Former death metal bands like Immortal and Enslaved soon followed, each developing its own style of black metal and forever changing the course of extreme metal history.

To be fair, as much as I love the black metal era of Darkthrone, I still believe that "Soulside Journey" was a masterpiece in its own right—an outstanding death metal album with inventive songwriting, elaborate song structures, and a darker atmosphere than many of its American counterparts. While its Sunlight Studio production resembled that of Swedish peers such as Entombed or Dismember, Darkthrone had its own approach to death metal. The Norwegians featured more convulsive, technical riffs; frequent tempo changes; and occasional atmospheric keyboards that created a somber mood, similar to other national acts like Thou Shalt Suffer and Old Funeral, which included members who later formed other defining black metal bands such as Emperor, Burzum, and—to a lesser extent—Hades and Ildjarn.

"Goatlord" picks up where "Soulside Journey" left off, continuing its elaborate, sophisticated death metal formula while increasing technical prowess and complex riff structures. By mixing tremolo picking with double kick-driven riffs, recurring doomy passages, sudden speed-ups, and twisted riffs, the band demonstrates intricate songwriting in which one riff rarely repeats, almost always evolving into a new one after a few measures. Unlike brutal death metal, however, Darkthrone manages to maintain a sense of melody throughout the material, and the riffs become easier to memorize after a few listens, thanks in part to the band's generally controlled pace and greater emphasis on the doom/death side. Influences from early Death, Sadus, and Autopsy still abound, although Fenriz & co. really were truly developing a style of their own here, showing youthful creativity that often leads to unpredictable instrumental passages and unconventional compositional choices. While Nocturno Culto's leads still needed some refinement, Fenriz delivers the best performance of his career, displaying sophisticated, tasteful drumming clearly influenced by the best rock and metal players of the 70s and 80s. Bassist Dag Nilsen also stands out, with a fingerstyle technique that is equally impressive, as already demonstrated on "Soulside Journey." Unfortunately, keyboards are missing, as this is just a rehearsal, so one can only imagine where they might have appeared on a hypothetical official studio recording. The sound is very good for a simple rehearsal tape, with crisp drums, well-balanced guitars, and audible bass, without much tape hiss or distortion.

It would be rather pointless to focus on individual songs, as the tracklist is highly consistent and stylistically coherent, never deviating from its distinctive death/doom metal formula. However, a few details stand out, such as clearly Celtic Frost-inspired riffs on "(The) Grimness of Which Shepherds Mourn" (also known as "Possessed" in the original instrumental version), which predate an approach the band would often use during its black metal phase, and a fast riff on "(Birth of Evil) Virgin Sin" (aka "Wolf") that would be reused in the ending of "In the Shadow of the Horns" less than a year later. Interestingly, "As Desertshadows" (aka "Blasphemer") features a central riff that is adapted (if not literally stolen) from the "Children of the Corn" movie theme.

The album has been released in two main versions: the 1996 edition features vocals recorded by Fenriz in 1994 on his 4-track Necrohell porta-studio, while the original instrumental rehearsal/demo has been reissued several times over the years as bonus material, with an official standalone release titled "Goatlord: Original" in 2023. Besides the absence of vocals, the main differences are in the sound, which is fuller and has more prominent bass frequencies in the "original" version. It also features the unedited sessions, including dialogue between songs, drumsticks at the beginning of tracks, typical rehearsal room noises, and a rendition of the "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" title track. Although both versions clearly lack some elements and leave me wondering how a complete studio recording of the songs would have sounded, featuring Nocturno Culto's vocals from the era and professional production, I still prefer the instrumentals to the 1996 version, as they allow for a better appreciation of the music.

Fenriz's vocals in the 1996 edition are, in fact, an odd mix of black metal shrieks (similar to how he sang on Isengard's "Høstmørke" black metal tracks), theatrical clean vocal passages, and some extremely strange, female-sounding operatic vocals, all notoriously performed by Fenriz himself. Overall, the vocals are rather spotty and don't seem to blend well with the music, especially the recurring "female" vocals, which appear in several tracks with varying degrees of success. It almost seems as if Fenriz wanted to give the record an experimental, Celtic Frost-style gothic feel, evoking songs like "Necromantical Screams" or "Rex Irae (Requiem)," rather than referencing, for example, King Diamond's falsetto; he's clearly trying to sound like a female operatic choir. While it's a histrionic and bold move for Darkthrone, especially since this version was released at the height of the band's true black metal phase, it's definitely an over-the-top choice and was quite a shock if you experienced it in 1996. If today one might expect such unusual moves from Fenriz, who has definitely stopped taking himself too seriously (not necessarily for the better), I can assure you that, at the time, black metal fans didn't receive those vocals well at all, even though I recall that most listeners were not even aware that Fenriz performed them himself, since it wasn't stated anywhere. To make things worse, the vocals are generally too loud in the mix.

On a side note, I much prefer the 1996 album artwork with the goat skull in blue than the alternative 2023 painting by Zbigniew Bielak. Although the latter is well done, I don't feel it's dark enough to complement the music.

"Goatlord," in both its versions, is an interesting snapshot of Darkthrone's history and a "sliding doors" moment when you consider how things might have been different if the band had chosen to stick with this material in 1991, instead of becoming one of the most important black metal bands in the world. We certainly would have missed at least three (if not five) masterpieces of the genre, but at the same time, I would have loved to experience an alternative timeline where a death metal version of Darkthrone thrived and released a proper "Goatlord" record, especially since no band seems to have built on that unique style since.

LISTEN: YouTube (1996 release) / Spotify (original instrumental version)