NWONHM
With the acclaim that Darkthrone have attained since ditching their death metal beginnings and releasing a trio of albums that helped pioneer the entire black metal genre, standing back and soaking up the kudos for the rest of their career would have been an easy option. But far from grasping desperately to the their frost-bitten black metal personae; Norwegian duo Fenriz and Nocturno Culto, clearly disconcerted with the world of modern heavy metal, evidently sat down a while back and saw the wisdom in burning bridges instead of churches, and have instead been excreting blackened Motorhead love to much applause and disgust from fans in seemingly equal measures.
Darkthrone's new skin has continued to evolve throughout subsequent releases, gradually becoming a more refined version of what began with The Cult Is Alive; the raw punk aesthetic slowly deserting the music but instead invading the overall attitude of the band. If their first outing into an entirely different sound was a bold if somewhat characterless statement, their NWOBHM-inspired handiwork since then has continually enlarged the size of the middle finger they appear to be holding up for all the world to see. Culminating in 2010's impressive Circle The Wagons, the band's new lease of life, as well as their quest to sound more like Iron Maiden than evil black metal bastards, appears to be unstoppable.
Musically, The Underground Resistance continues the building and refinement trend of the previous four albums as expected, yet the immediate sensation from opening track Dead Early is one of urgency and a focus on their new-found renaissance that nods enthusiastically in the direction of 80s heavy metal. The song even fades out at the end (whatever next, an Abba cover?). The production values are upped considerably from the Darkthrone of old; long gone are the muffled sounds of somebody fiddling with the various power settings on their hairdryer, and even the improved quality of recent releases sounds one-dimensional in comparison.
The Bathory-esque Valkyrie is the epitome of everything Darkthrone have achieved here; an album of great songs worth revisiting on a regular basis, rather than the directionless dissidence they may have been guilty of in the past. Fenriz's vocals seem to improve with every new release and this album is no exception, his crudely-wailed melodies complementing the music even when he's not entirely in key. The Ones You Left Behind continues to highlight this and sounds more like it was written in a pub circa 1984 by a couple of blokes with mullets and moustaches. Come Warfare, The Entire Doom is a solid, nine-minute-long slab of blackened speed metal that could quite easily have been borne from the creative pit of some timeworn European thrash band.
Ending with the mighty Leave No Cross Unturned raises a grin as it enters with Fenriz's high-pitched wailing; something nobody would have expected from Darkthrone, ever. Yet despite the initial hilarity, it turns out to be the album highlight. Clocking in at a whopping fourteen minutes, it morphs from speed metal beast to Celtic Frost riff-fest and back again before nodding at Black Sabbath to end things with a statement of unstoppable retro intent. Have Darkthrone reached the apex of their new sound? Only future releases will answer that, but it's certainly been an interesting journey. The Underground Resistance is Darkthrone's finest album to-date, at least since their change in direction. So are they genuinely embracing the truest sense of black metal and punk mentality, or are they just a couple of ageing old gits who fancied a good old moan on the back of a haphazard attempt at being rebellious? Judging by this album (and the previous four), it's probably a bit of both.