When Peaceville announced that DARKTHRONE had returned home, there were discussions. When it was announced that DARKTHRONE would record their first single, ever, the discussions even grew. Of course, DARKTHRONE have not always delivered strong releases, in my opinion at least the quality of "Plaguewielder" and "Goatlord" is certainly debatable. But the duo probably could not care less or as they say: "Nothing to prove…". And this is why they will not care about anyone’s opinion regarding this EP as well. They are so far ahead of anybody else. They are the sole survivor (with the exception of ENSLAVED) of the very early 90s Norwegian Black Metal-scene, so why should they care? And is anyone here expecting another "Transilvanian Hunger" in a time when dozens of bands try to sound like DARKTHRONE anno 1993 and blatantly fail? In fact it was a very wise choice to not record in a studio but at Nocturno Culto’s house. The sound is not thin, but dirty, probably closer to "Under A Funeral Moon" than any other album released throughout the years. The titlesong starts with an unbelievably cool opening riff, before it gets very slo-mo until the end and. ‘High On Cold War’ begins with a completely silly solo until it becomes another very punkish but still cool song, with vocal duties shared by Grutle from ENSLAVED and Nocturno. ‘Graveyard Slut’, the only exclusive DARKTHRONE-song on this release, sounds as nasty and rusty as it can get. I am pretty sure that songs like these are the ones that wannabes like Nattefrost would like to compose once in their lifetime. Although the weakest song on this single, the SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES – cover ‘Love In A Void’ nevertheless is pretty listenable as especially the clear vocals are interesting, I don’t want to know how much Fenriz drank before recording them. Not to mention that the original interpretators might turn in their graves. Two things remain as a conclusion before the new album (their twelfth!!!): DARKTHRONE are able to write shorter songs (which I normally tend not to like) and still not to lose any feeling and secondly, DARKTHRONE finally incorporated some of those "Panzerfaust" doom-parts in their songs again. If someone really needs a negative aspect on this album: the coverartwork could be the weakest in DARKTHRONE’s complete history, but it looks already better for the album, so I may forgive them here. I might end with a quote from ‘Too Old, Too Cold’: "You call your Metal Black – it’s plastic, lame and weak…". www.darkthrone.no