Darkthrone: Circle the Wagons

The world, according to the Darkthrone gospel, is a jaded living space, currently plagued by pretentious heavy metal musicians who got it all wrong in trying to manifest the music- there is a need to be raw sounding & move away from the digital realm. This is the perfect reason for one to be engaged in introversion & shutting out life's occurrences because there is no life. If there is any hope for us black metal fans to relive the band's glorious days of A Blaze in the Northern Sky et al, this remains to be just hopes. The entitiy known as Darkthrone is now firming its metamorphosis into a punk-esque establishment employing liberal doses of the music genre they once used to champion.

Circle the Wagons is a release in this understanding of which the 'metalpunk' label is currently used to understand the music. Predictability is the order of the day where the numbers here do not differ from its other prior cross-over releases, FOAD & Dark Thrones & Black Flags. What Circle the Wagons lack are defining moments to further bolster their current engagements; These Shores are Damned & Blacksmith of the North did favours to the aforementioned predecessor albums, such compositions are evidently lacking this time round.