Darkthrone started out as a death metal band, and their 1991 album Soulside Journey reflects that. Since then, they got rid of their bassist Dag Nilsen, who "hated black metal", and eventually - sometime after the release of Under a Funeral Moon - their main guitarist and songwriter Zephyrous left the band (he eventually joined the Norwegian blackened death metal act Vermin, but that's another story).
So, for most of the band's contemporary history - Transilvanian Hunger onward, although Varg Vikernes did write some riffs and a few lyrics on that album -, Darkthrone has only ever been a two man affair: Fenriz (Gylve Nagell) and Nocturno Culto (Ted Skjellum).
These two foundational forces have a very different style: the openly abrasive and pompous Fenriz, versus the calm and taciturn, and some would say more composed, Nocturno Culto.
But if there's one thing they both agree on: modern black metal is comprised of 99% posers, and the media portrayal of black metal is nonsense.
"We used to Rehearse in a Bomb Shelter!"
In his most recent interview with the everlasting Morsay.net Metal Magazine, Darkthrone drummer and main personality Fenriz lays some uncomfortable truths about the state of modern black metal... and what separates Darkthrone from the "herd" of wannabes.
Fenriz: We rehearsed and recorded demos in our old rehearsal place which was a bomb shelter in 1988-1990 and in 2015 we returned there and recorded Arctic Thunder and Old Star there and it felt great, finally we were BACK! But the bomb shelter was in rather poor condition and in May 2019 the bomb dropped – all the bands were evicted as it was deemed unfit for human activities. So, it was shocking.
That's not something your hear every day. Can you imagine the Watain emos or the Dark Funeral poser queens rehearsing in a bomb shelter??? "But where's my manicure! I forgot my lipstick at the entrance!" exclaims a confused and distraught Lord Ahriman Svanberg (the Dark Funeral moron who mocked David "Blackmoon" Parland after his death). Anyway, enough about them, back to Fenriz.
"We ARE the Raw Black Metal!"
The interview doesn't stop there, far from it. Fenriz goes on to rant - again, but let's admit, his rants are always entertaining, not to mention often very informative - about the state of modern black metal, and the modern day "armchair critic" who voices his uneducated opinion about a scene he was never a part of.
Fenriz: We ARE the raw black metal. I fail to see what's raw about having a WHO CAN PLAY FASTEST competition (already made fun of by Quorthon in 88). [...] We hail BATHORY as one of the forefathers of REAL metal (as in NOT modern shit metal), so when we put together all this it's is kind of difficult to say what we are now perhaps...like MOTÖRHEAD - is it punk? rock? metal?
Fenriz also has some kind words - jk, he is very blunt - about the "commercial metal" bands that want to make a quick buck by playing up the media angle and dressing up as clown vampires and emos (Watain, Antekhrist, Dimmu Burger, etc).
Fenriz: I have worked full time since I was 16 to earn a living. What do you think? And before that I took jobs wherever I could find it to have money to buy albums. "I was born on sunday, on thursday I had me a job". So, yes, I still work full time AND do DARKTHRONE beside it. I f-ckin hate lazy people who think they can make money off of black metal. [...] F-ck 'em all.
So if Darkthrone's members, one of the originators of black metal alongside Mayhem and Burzum, actually work full time IN ADDITION to being some of the most prolific bands in existence... what is the excuse for the Gorgoroth posers whose only claim to fame is having usurped the title of "true black metal" during the infamous revisionist Vice Media documentary (where they claimed Gaahl, of all people, "invented" black metal in 1999)?
"Darkthrone has nothing to do with Emperor"
On a lighter note, Fenriz is one man who likes to have a good laugh... and sometimes at the expense of his fellow black metal musicians.
Fenriz: What I think [of Emperor's reformation]? I have nothing to do with Emperor, man. The kids are ecstatic, I think. They llike shiny objects. And the Americans seems to love it. But do these people like REAL USA metal like THRUST or WHIPLASH!?
Emperor, and Ihsahn in particular, seem to be the target of many mockeries from the "old guard" of black metal... I guess dressing up as Princess Leia from Star Wars VI: The Return of the Jedi, before attempting a horrible Bathory "cover" wasn't such a good idea.
Fenriz is right to put him in his place. Emperor was always seen as the "McDonald's" of black metal after all.
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