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Damn Good For What It Is - 84%

hellhippie, July 29th, 2008

Darkthrone are one of the longest standing black metal gods around as most know already . Most of their early stuff is hailed as unquestionable triumphs and held in the highest regard by most fans of this genre . Their quote unquote unholy trinity being A Blaze In the Northern Sky , Transilvanian Hunger , and Under A Funeral Moon which makes up their first three releases after changing over from being a death metal band is absolutely necessary in anyones black metal collection and Under Beskyttelse av Morke fits right in .

When hearing of this release before getting my hands on it on vinyl (666 copies pressed and only sold at a japjanese black metal convention there) me being from the U.S i figured thats exactly what a Darkthrone fan needs , a crappy washed out obscure rehearsal done in a basement that's in a limited press and will no doubt sound like sheer crap . Three rehearsal tracks from Under A Funeral Moon in 1992 recorded in Fenriz's living room cannot be good right ? Wrong !

The sound here is very clear . The tracks being Under a Funeral Moon , Unholy Black Metal , and an instrumental only version of Crossing The Triangle Of Flames is actually really freaking heavy .Nocturno Culto's vocals are just as sick as anything he laid down in the studio on the aforementioned three albums , raw evil and black sung with total conviction he does not disappoint here . Zephyrous's guitar is blazingly fast , well played and totally brutal , dare i say even better than on the actual album itself . Last but certainly not least is the drums . Fenriz is dead on in this rehearsal , drumming at a frantic morbid pace , never missing a beat , all the fills , cymbals and grinding black metal fury is there .

One almost feels as if they are sitting on the couch watching Darkthrone when hearing this and most would have loved to have been . For an obscure little moment in history when the evilest of the early Norwegian black metal bands was still a rare trio , you can thank whoever decided to record this rehearsal , because it easily fits in with any Darkthrone collectors discography . For once also it doesn't sound as if the annoying neighbor decided to press record on an old boom box in the apartment next door when this was going on so they would have proof for the cops that these kids were being way way too loud . This is a really enjoyable raw rehearsal . Pray for a repress because this is a great one !