In 2024, the ‘Transilvanian Hunger’ – 4th studio full-album from Darkthrone completes 30th Anniversary. This album was released in February 17th, 1994 by Peaceville Records.
– Recording:
‘Transilvanian Hunger‘ was the first Darkthrone full-album to be recorded as a duo (Nocturno Culto and Fenriz), which was a direct result of Zephyrous‘s departure from the band the previous year.
Fenriz performed all instrumentation on the album, with Nocturno Culto adding vocals. As of 2018, this and Panzerfaust have been the only Darkthrone albums with this type of arrangement (although Fenriz also performs spoken word vocals on the Panzerfaust outro). Transilvanian Hunger was recorded on a 4-track recorder set up in Fenriz’s bedroom (dubbed “Necrohell Studios” by the band). Lyrics for four of the album’s songs were written by the Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes, who performed solo as Burzum.
– Release and Controversy:
The cover art was a black-and-white photograph of Fenriz with a candelabrum, which bore a likeness to the cover of Mayhem’s 1993 live album Live in Leipzig. The back cover stated that “Darkthrone is for all the evil in man” and listed the slogan “True Norwegian Black Metal”.
Originally, the back cover also bore the words “Norsk Arisk Black Metal” (“Norwegian Aryan black metal”). Due to negative feedback from many distributors, however, the phrase was removed. The band also intended to issue another controversial statement to mark the album’s release: “We would like to state that Transilvanian Hunger stands beyond any criticism. If any man should attempt to criticize this LP, he should be thoroughly patronized for his obviously Jewish behavior”. In a press release, Peaceville Records issued both this statement and their own response, berating the sentiment but acknowledging that they could not censor their artists. Darkthrone issued a formal apology at Peaceville’s behest. They said they had used “Arisk” to mean “true” or “pure” and that “Jewish” was Norwegian youth slang for “idiotic”. Darkthrone included the following statement with their next album, Panzerfaust, the following year: “Darkthrone is certainly not a Nazi band nor a political band. Those of you who still might think so, you can lick Mother Mary’s asshole in eternity”. More recently, Fenriz disowned these past statements, describing them as “disgusting”. He admitted regret and noted that at the time, he was going through a phase of being “angry at several races”.
The ending of the track “As Flittermice as Satans Spys” contained a backmasked message. When the voice is played backwards, it utters the phrase: “In the name of God, let the churches burn”.
In 2003, the album was remastered and reissued by Peaceville, as well as being repackaged in a cardboard digipak. The fourth and final chapter of a four-part video interview (spanning the first four albums) with Fenriz and Nocturno Culto was also included as bonus material.
- First press 1994 (Vile 43CD): VILE 43 written on the disc, no Music for Nations logo on the back cover;
– Second press 1994 (CDVILE 43): no VILE 43 written on the disc, Peaceville Records logo on the back cover;
– Both have the infamous phrase ‘Norsk Arisk Black Metal‘ (Norwegian Aryan Black Metal).
– Legacy:
- In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Transilvanian Hunger as 85th on their list of ‘The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time’.
– Lineup from album:
- Nocturno Culto – vocals;
- Fenriz – guitar, bass guitar, drums, lyrics (tracks 1–4);
–Other member:
- Greifi Grishnackh – lyrics (tracks 5–8) – He’s Varg Vikernes;
-In Staff:
Tomas Lindberg did the logo;
Nimbus did the Mastering (Europe);
Mayking did the Mastering (UK);
Tania Stene did the Artwork (uncredited, “Ferdasyn”);
Fenriz was the Cover model.
– Tracklist:
| 1. | Transilvanian Hunger | 06:10 | Show lyrics |
| 2. | Over fjell og gjennom torner | 02:29 | Show lyrics |
| 3. | Skald av Satans sol | 04:29 | Show lyrics |
| 4. | Slottet i det fjerne | 04:45 | Show lyrics |
| 5. | Graven tåkeheimens saler | 04:59 | Show lyrics |
| 6. | I en hall med flesk og mjød | 05:13 | Show lyrics |
| 7. | As Flittermice as Satans Spys | 05:56 | Show lyrics |
| 8. | En ås i dype skogen | 05:03 | Show lyrics |
| 39:04 | |||
– English translations:
2. Over Mountains and Through Thorns
3. Scald of Satan’s Sun
4. The Castle in the Distance
5. Tombs in the Misty Halls
6. In a Hall with Pork and Mead
8. A God in the Deep Woods
- (Ås can mean hill, but in this instance it is used as the singular noun for the Norwegian Æsir.).
- In December, 2022 was released the 12″ Vinyl – Limited edition, Violet vinyl, Reissue and 12″ Vinyl – Limited edition, Gold vinyl, Reissue by Peaceville Records;
- In July, 2022 was released in CD by Metal Army (Slipcase, Brazilian edition);
- In October, 2020 was released in Digital Format (on bandcamp) by Peaceville Records – (titled “Transilvanian Hunger (20th Anniversary Edition)”).
Follow:
Moonfog Productions @ Archive.org
Peaceville Records
Peaceville Records @ Bandcamp
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