As of 2026, it's been 40 years since the formation of Black Death, the group that evolved into Norwegian black metal pioneers Darkthrone. Darkthrone are a big enough deal that we published a ranking of their albums in 2013, and they're prolific enough that they've released plenty more albums since then. Soon, they'll add another one to the total.
This spring, Darkthrone will follow their 2024 LP It Beckons Us All with a new one called Pre-Historic Metal. I like when an album title also works as a genre descriptor, and the title track does sound like the kind of thing that dinosaurs might make if they learned how to play blastbeats. Here's what bandleader Fenriz says about the meaning of the album and its title:
It means that we are metal. With very loud guitars. "Frightfully barbaric but not without finesse," I call it. We collaborated in the studio more than ever, who's playing what is still in a purple haze, but last but not least it was a sort of hardening of the arteries — we decided to tighten the tourniquet and do 8 effective songs brimming with riffs instead of the airy plodding we so much enjoy usually.
Hear "Pre-Historic Metal" below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "They Found One Of My Graves"
02 "Pre-Historic Metal"
03 "Siberian Thaw"
04 "Deeply Rooted"
05 "The Dry Wells Of Hell"
06 "So I Marched To The Sunken Empire"
07 "Eat Eat Eat Your Pride"
08 "Eon 4"
Pre-Historic Metal is out 5/8 on Peaceville.
