Just listened to
Darkthrone's new album
Arctic Thunder straight through.
I like it. With a reasonable pair of headphones, sat in the dark the musical subtleties force their way through immediately.
I'm not sure there's much old school black metal actually on the album. I certainly heard a lot of other musical influences from
Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Saxon even
Motley Crue and obviously
Motorhead, all complementing
Darkthrone's evolving sound. In fact take away the vocals and i'm not sure it's even that extreme at all. It's well produced and has a fine modern guitar sound, even Fenriz sounds like he's been allowed out of the biscuit tin with his drumming.