Year 1986 in Oslo, Norway the new band was born, called "Black Death" featuring three members,
Gylve Nagell, Ivar Enger and Dag Nilsen. Musically, Black Death was death metal band but
lyrically they were satanic. Two years later in 1988 they released their first demo,
and by then they had renamed the band to Darkthrone. Some say it was Dark Throne.
Anyway, the first demo was called "Land of Frost". After they had recorded their first demo,
Ted Skjellum joined the band. Later the same year, they released a promo with only 2 songs,
which was called "A New Dimension". No record deal yet with these two pieces of Death Metal.
In 1989 they entered the studio to record another demo and the result was "Thulcandra" which
was another 2 tracks release. Later that year they released another demo called "Cromlech".
They sent that demo and a recent rehearsal-tape to the english label, Peaceville.
Few weeks passed by and finally Peaceville wrote back and said that they wanted Darkthrone
to sign for them. Fenriz has stated that, "Signing for Peaceville was a dream come true,
and at just 18 years of age."

In 1990 Darkthrone entered Sunlight Studios in Stockholm, Sweden to record their first album,
and as Fenriz stated it was Dark Throne's last album. This new album was called
"Soulside Journey".
This album featured all the songs from the "Cromlech" demo and one song from the "Thulcandra"
demo, and 6 new songs. The result was a technical death metal album, with quite good sound
quality. Gylve called himself Hank Amarillo on this release, due to the fact that no-one could
pronounce his name as it should be pronounced. The album was dedicated to the entire
death metal scene.

After releasing "Soulside Journey", Darkthrone started to write material to another death metal
album, but during the time they were still rehearsing/writing these songs, Ted and Ivar came
to the conclusion that the death metal scene had become too trendy. The new direction was
Black Metal, and one big influence was Euronymous and his band Mayhem.
There were also other sources of inspiration, like Celtic Frost, old Bathory and others.
After changing their musical direction from technical death metal to black metal, Darkthrone
released in 1991 their second album (or first as Fenriz stated), called
"A Blaze in the Northern Sky".
Nothing was the same as seen or heard before. The cover was all black and white,
the members used corpse paint on the pictures. Real names was replaced by artist names.
Gylve Nagell had become Fenriz, Ted Skjellum to Nocturno Culto and Ivar Enger to Zephyrous.
Dag Nilsen, who didn't like the way the band was going now, left the band after doing
session-bass for this album. I read from an interview with Fenriz that Nilsen actually showed up
with his new, fancy Marshall amp and stuff, and thought they would let him play with it.
But they just told him that he wasn't gonna play on that fancy crap, as this was black metal
they were recording... According to Fenriz, Nilsen was very disappointed by this.

Fenriz has stated (many times) that this is actually Darkthrone's first album and actually
there are two Darkthrone's. One that was born in 1986 and died after "Soulside Journey",
and one which was born in 1991 and this was the first album released by the 'new' Darkthrone.
This album was eternally dedicated to Euronymous of Mayhem.
Many of their old fans from their death metal days frightened by their new sound,
which was and is cold, grim and ugly, but others came to like their change of style.

It took two years until Darkthrone released their next album, "Under a Funeral Moon".
This album followed the same route as "A Blaze in the Northern Sky",
only with even grimmer production. Dag Nilsen had now left the band for good, and Nocturno Culto
took over the bass guitar. Most 'people' couldn't understand why they would want to have such
bad sound quality on their albums, or why all the riffs have to be so repetive. But of course,
this was just what Darkthrone wanted. They didn't want regular-metal-heads to like their
music. It was also on this album Darkthrone for the first time made the statement
"True Norwegian Black Metal" to describe their music, and as this album was the first one for
Darkthrone that didn't include death metal riffs, as "A Blaze in the Northern Sky"
somehow did, this was the first true norwegian black metal release.

In 1994 it was time to release a new album called "Transilvanain Hunger".
Some article tells that the title for this album may be a reference to the death of the
former Mayhem vocalist, Dead. He wore an "I Love Transilvania"-shirt while blowing his brains
out. There comes that Transilvania. Euronymous of Mayhem also said that he actually ate parts
of Dead's brain when he had killed himself. Thus, hunger for Transilvania... You get the point.
The lyrics on this album are mostly in Norwegian, and half of them are written by Varg Vikernes
(a.k.a Count Grishnackh) of Burzum. At the end of the song 'As Flittermice As Satans Spys'
the famous "In the name of God, let the churches burn" backwards message can be found.
This album has an even worse production than any of their earlier releases. Might thought
that they recorded this album on a 4-track portastudio, but Vermin from the "Total Death"
website informed Nattsorgh (thanks to him and Vermin) that if you listen closely you will hear
that they actually use 5 tracks... guitars in left and right speakers + bass, drums and vocals.

Darkthrone faced lots of problems when this album was released. First, the back cover of this
album says "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" which means also "Norwegian Aryan Black Metal" what was
a big problem for the idiots who didn't know that it means also "True Norwegian Black Metal".
And on top of that, Peaceville, the english label that Darkthrone was still on at the moment,
didn't want to release this album, because of the statement "We would like to state that
"Transilvanian Hunger" stands beyond any criticism. If any man should attempt to criticize
this LP, he should be thorougly patronized for his obviously jewish behavior" by Fenriz, that
he wanted Peaceville to add on the sleeve to the album. After Peaceville refused to release
this album, Darkthrone came out to defend themselves, saying that the word "jew" is commonly
used in Norway as another word for idiot etc.

"If this is true or not, I cannot say as I don't live in Norway, but I do now that it is used
as such a word here in Sweden, so why should it NOT be true?"
-This was Nattsorgh's comment and I can totally say the same.
I live in Finland and used to live in Sweden, it is common.

Later in 1994, it was time for the next album to be released, called 'Panzerfaust'.
Darkthrone had now left Peaceville for norwegian label Moonfog, which is run by
Sigurd Wongraven (Satyr) of Satyricon.
Reason might be that their contract with Peaceville had gone out after 4 albums,
or perhaps it was as some people say, that they only wanted to work with Norwegians.
I think it has something to do with all those problems with Peaceville, they were too wimpy
to accept Fenriz's and Darkthrone's attitudes. They were thinking only money.
There is also one reason why they signed for Moonfog. Fenriz and Satyr are good friends,
and as Moonfog has quite a good reputation in the black metal scene, they choose to sign them.
This album was also dedicated to Satyr. Musically "Panzerfaust" is influenced by Celtic Frost.
Varg Vikernes of Burzum, helped with the lyrics on this album as well, but only for one song
called "Quintessence". The riffs in this song is also featured on Storm's album 'Nordavind',
on the song 'Noresgard'. I don't know if it was Darkthrone that took it from Storm, or the
other way around, as both albums were released in 1994, and it doesn't say anywhere. And after
all, who cares when Fenriz is playing in both bands!!!
Panzerfaust is an anti-tank weapon, used by the germans in World War II.
Panzerfaust means, when translated - "Tankfist".
The statements on the back cover are this time not only "True Norwegian Black Metal" or
"Unholy Black Metal". There stands "The Most Hated Band In The World" which may well have been
true after all that bullshit floating around about that "Transilvanian Hunger" situation.
Being a nazi-band or not. If you don't know what to think check out the "Panzerfaust" booklet,
where stands that they are CERTAINLY not a nazi-band, and that those who might still think so
can lick mother Mary's asshole in eternity.

After the release of 'Panzerfaust', Zephyrous left the band under very mystical circumstances.
It is not known if he played at all on that album, as the album itself says nothing about who
did what, as on 'Transilvanian Hunger'. Some people thought he was dead, some that he had moved
from Norway etc. Many rumours were going. Nocturno Culto has said that he did not want to talk
about this because of it it's cruel nature... For those who thinks he's dead though, Fenriz has
said he's alive, and that he actually came to see the last Darkthrone gig ever, in Oslo on the
6th of April 1996. Why he left the band though, I don't think anyone except Fenriz and Nocturno
Culto will ever know...

In 1995 Fenriz and Nocturno Culto recorded their to this day last album (as Goatlord really isn't a
new album), called 'Total Death'. The style of this album is more like their earlier releases, but
with a little more 'trashy' sound. Many people that are new to Darkthrone like this album best, as it
has better sound quality than the old releases, and more variety in the music. But many of the
older fans, didn't like it as much... Keep in mind, that Zephyrous was no longer part of the band,
and thus Darkthrone couldn't rehearse as much as a band may need. It is not easy with only two
members. For the lyrics on this album, Darkthrone gathered people from the black metal scene in
Norway. Together with Nocturno Culto, "famous" artists as Ihsahn of Emperor, Satyr of Satyricon
and Garm of Ulver wrote the lyrics. (These were not the only ones that wrote for this album
though).

In 1996 the 'Goatlord' album was released. After releasing 'Soulside Journey', Darkthrone
started to write material to another death metal album. So the material they had been writing
was never used because they changed their style to Black Metal. Not until 1994, when they
realized that the material they had been writing was too good to be left aside. So they just
added some vocals and Satyr visited on that album with screams on 'Rex' and 'Sadomasochistic Rites'
There is also a female voice on that album, but no information who she might be if there
even is woman. Once again the rumours tell that it might be Nocturno Culto who sings them or as
it reads on the "Total Death" website some people believe that it's actually Fenriz
singing falsetto. The album was called 'Goatlord', and was released on Moonfog in 1996.
Most of the lyrics on this album, can also be found on Darkthrone's third album,
'Under a Funeral Moon', but there are also whole new lyrics for this fantastic release. 

Present, Darkthrone has finished their newest piece of True Norwegian Black Metal which was
recorded in June 1999. The title is "Ravishing Grimness" and once again, the cover is b&w.
You can go to Moonfog.com (check out my left frame, there's a link) and read about this album
and download some mp3 files too.
Rumours tell that this might be the last Darkthrone album ever released, but as I was enlighted
(BIG THANK for BaronWebb who interviewed Fenriz) Fenriz stated in this inteview that Darkthrone
will never change their style which might be the sign for future releases.
So, I believe that Ravishing Grimness won't be their last, but we'll see...

Thanks to Nattsorgh, BaronWebb, Vidvandre & Vermin.