Year: 2024
Total Time: 43:29  
Label: Peaceville Records

Two years have passed since the release of “Astral Fortress” by the highly regarded Norwegians (former Black Metallers) DARKTHRONE, and this year finds them offering us yet another new album. Entitled “It Beckons Us All…….”, it contains seven tracks, with the band continuing along similar paths compared to their previous two albums, “Astral Fortress” and “Eternal Hails……”. The big question is whether they can finally deliver us something of higher standards as, in the recent years, the duo of Fenriz and Culto has unfortunately focused on quantity, bombarding us with releases at the expense of quality.

This thing unfortunately does not change with the new album, as here we have something similar with the previous two albums. Songs that mix influences from CELTIC FROST, Doom Metal, classic Heavy Metal, along with music elements from the ’70s, resulting in a hypnotic and tiresome outcome. Having no differentiation from the previous two albums, the band gives the impression that it is too lazy to work on delivering a quality effort. The compositions are entirely unremarkable, and even the most devoted fan of the Norwegians will find it difficult to revisit this album in the future. Culto’s vocals remain at non interesting levels, while Fenriz’s attempt to sing on “Eon 3” is wasted, as it sounds like he recorded it with the microphone really far away. To top it all off, DARKTHRONE thought it necessary to waste three minutes of the listeners’ precious time with the completely useless instrumental “And in That Moment I Knew the Answer.”

In conclusion, with “It Beckons Us All…….”, the Norwegians add yet another mediocre album to their extensive discography. Personally, I had quite a few expectations for this album, as after two indifferent releases, I was hoping that DARKTHRONE would put out something of higher quality. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I hope that for their next album, which will likely be released in a year or two, they will try to write songs following different musical paths. Perhaps they should set aside this ego-driven attitude, where they claim they “don’t care what the fans think” and just “play what they like”. However, when they release their demos and early albums in different editions every year, that ego quickly fades away. But since we have a soft spot for them, we’ll overlook “It Beckons Us All…….” and wait for them to redeem themselves with their next album.

Rating: 5,5/10
Editor: Nikos Manousis
Related Link: DARKTHRONE – Facebook Page