Never fails: I’m sitting here in the middle of writing this gigantic feature on Darkthrone when out of nowhere — BLAM! — a new Darkthrone song appears. On one hand: I love Darkthrone, so this is great! On the other: I have listened to enough Darkthrone over the past week to satisfy me for several lifetimes. “Leave No Cross Unturned” is the first song to be released from the band’s forthcoming 15th (or 16th, depending on how you keep count) longplayer, The Underground Resistance, and it very much continues down the trad-metal path set forth upon by the band on their last few releases, most notably 2010’s Circle The Wagons. Sounds like Fenriz is doing primary vocal duty here, which is … an acquired taste, but assuming you can get past (or even enjoy!) his weird mix of King Diamond and Tom G. Warrior mannerisms, well, the guitars fucking rock, the production is a nice balance of ragged and full-bodied, and the song fades out on a Nocturno Culto solo that Fenriz introduces with a hearty “Nocturno Culto!” Check it out.

The Underground Resistance is out 2/25 via Peaceville. Full tracklist here:

01 “Dead Early”
02 “Valkyrie”
03 “Lesser Men”
04 “The Ones You Left Behind”
05 “Come Warfare, The Entire Doom”
06 “Leave No Cross Unturned”