Plaguewielder

Darkthrone | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The End Records
• ASIN: B000EBCEO0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,893 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No reviews on this one????????, November 22, 2006

By 

SpacegrassMan (Insane Land of Words & Music) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Plaguewielder (Audio CD)

How can there be no reviews on this! If you liked Ravishing grimness or Panzerfaust, you'll come to worship this like all Darkthrone. If anything, the entire price of the CD is worth the final track: Wreak. Like the classic, Quintessence, off Panzerfaust, this is one hell of a massive jam that will pound you into another realm when you have it cranked up. Defintely one of the Darkthrone releases that deserves a lot more praise. If you are new to Darkthrone, or like their later sound more than the early stuff, you better grab this then. Easy 5 stars from one of the Gods of Black Metal.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good solid black metal album from these legends, February 19, 2002

By 

Andrew A. Deikun "adeikun" (Stow, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Plaguewielder (Audio CD)

Format: Full-length cd, 6 songs 42.52 minutes
Style: Raw Black Metal
Rating: 93/100
Label: Moonfog
Artist Website: ...
Similar Artists: Mayhem, Urgehal, Hellhammer, Bathory
Background: Darkthrone began as a death metal band in the early 90s and went on to become one of the most influential black metal bands ever. They epitomized the raw Norse black metal sound and are responsible for some of the most acclaimed releases ever (A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Transilvanian Hunger, Under a Funeral Moon, Panzerfaust). Their previous album, Ravishing Grimness, saw the band combine some of the aggression of their older music with better production, making for one of the best releases of 1999. As has been the case for the last few recordings, Darkthrone consists of Nocturno Culto on vocals, guitars and bass and Fenriz on drums. Additional vocals on the track "Command" are provided by Apollyon (Cadaver Inc) and Sverre Daehli (Aura Noir).
Packaging: The digipack cd that I purchased is well done. It includes all of the lyrics in English, and final incorporates some color in the artwork. The lyrics are very easy to read and the packaging overall is very basic, but this is what you would expect from a Darkthrone cd.
Production: "Plaguewielder" was recorded at StudioStudio studios and was engineered by Dag Stokke. All tracks are produced and written by Darkthrone. The production here is a much more modern than Darkthrone's older classic pieces but the music still remains primitive. The recording has a kind of sterile, icy sound to it, reminding me a little bit of Satyricon's Rebel Extravagana and most of the other releases coming out of Moonfog recently. At the same time it is not nearly as harsh and mechanical sounding as some of these releases, having an almost organic feel to it. You can hear all aspects of the music very well with not one instrument or vocal track drowning out any of the others. I think that the production on this recording is very appropriate and fits well within the Darkthrone aesthetic.
The Music: Darkthrone has developed their sound inside the boundaries of what we know and expect as Darkthrone. This recording has variation in a lot of areas; the tempo of the music (both fast and midpaced), the guitar-style (thrashy at times) and the song structure (longer songs). It is raw and catchy, minimalistic and technical. Consequently, Plaguewielder is a very mature recording; you can tell that this is their tenth release and that they are the elder statesmen of the scene. As is typical with Darkthrone, the lo-fi guitars are the main instrument. The vocals are typical black metal shrieks and are done very well. On this release, the drumming is well timed, making for some real head-banging moments. The bass plods along to the music and can actually be heard quite well. Overall this music delivers what you want in a Darkthrone record. They continue to build on a strong tradition of great black metal releases.
Recommendation: Highly recommended for those who like well played midpaced black metal. If you liked "Ravishing Grimness" you should enjoy this one, as it is not that far removed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fuzzing EVILution, February 7, 2003

By 

"[e-mail]" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plaguewielder (Audio CD)

Norse grim rippers are back with another devastating piece of swirling harshness & kult riffage! Indeed I was anticipating this album for a while and it is no more no less THE panzer Darkthrone we are all accustomed to hear, hail & honour! Again the listener is transported to a Void filled with hatred, utter disgust and most importantly the fuzzing garage sonority that launched Black Metal to the genre we all know today. Animalistic but definitely not awkward or clumsy the song-structures are cyclic, energetic and in many times carried by the retro-attack of Fenriz pounding drumming and Nocturno Culto genius riffs.
"Plaguewielder" is also a necessary return to previous ideas and in many ways a step back to construct what was left undone or completely not experimented before. An EVILution on the same pace as "Ravishing Grimness" but that I perceive as a constant return to the uglier origins to bring back the repressed & dirty elements of the past in order to establish the path to a darkened continuation. A move of pure dementia, but one clearly understands that! This is why every album is/has it's own reference point, exhibiting the varied faces of rawness but always belonging to the same necrotic womb.
If one were to explain Darkthrone position within the scene any further it probably wouldn't make any sense weren't they such an influential basis standing aside any trends and always a relief to the ears of the listeners, because the more do you get from them the more do you want, and one never suffers from disillusion by what this due delivers!
Other significant happenings are Fenriz lyrics being more interiorised by N. Culto and consequently better performed, the feelings sound this time more transparent and it makes the sore throat less boring and monochord. The studio work and the overall production does not really deserve too much attention here because we all know very well how Darkthrone is intended to sound, however this album is slightly more polished and as far as I'm concerned no problem or drastic change whatsoever.
The Goat gains it's complete Beast-shape when we're reaching for the end of the album. The opening riff of the second part of ""Wreak" (the last track) leaves my spine shivering with violence, it's totally grim & cold, and 100% of what Norwegian Black Metal is all about! Musical sin is again unleashed and with it a proclamation that Black Metal is not dead and will never be as long as Darkthrone exists!

Abyss Magazine @ Nuno M. [CR]