Review by Felix on December 9, 2019.

I have a special relationship with this full-length, because it was my first album of a Norwegian band. Unfortunately, there are no further reasons to appreciate this record in a specific manner. Soulside Journey is stuffed with painfully meaningless death metal. Inter alia due to its then exotic status, I tried hard to become a fan of this work. But I had no chance.

Today they are dinosaurs, but back in 1991, Darkthrone were absolute beginners and did not know much about the art of writing enthralling songs. The gap between their ambitions and their abilities was greater than the distance between Oslo and Hammerfest. To be more precise, the songs start somewhere and end somewhere, but I cannot identify central ideas. Instead, it feels like listening to fragments, because the single pieces appear torn and inconsistent. Darkthrone spit on conventional song patterns and that is not bad per se. The problem is that the songs fail to create a comprehensible flow. Too much (mediocre) ideas show up, and, even worse, none of them is clearly defined. This leads to pretty obscure results, not least because of a high number of awkward breaks. "Grave with a View", to mention just one example, starts atmospheric with background chorale, but this approach remains incomplete and the following parts fail to evoke any kind of emotions.

Basically, I miss catchiness and velocity. Too many slow-moving parts occur and some of them have the potential to cause mental anguish. The longer the album goes on, the worse it gets. This is not so much a problem of the later songs. They are not better or worse than its predecessors. The annoying fact is the recognition that the entire album lacks great compositions. In view of the omnipresent mediocrity of the song material, it is almost useless to philosophize about the quality of the production. Briefly, the nasty sound cannot be dismissed as amateurish or inappropriate. It does not lack of power and creates a cold aura, no more and no less.

One may call the compositional approach "progressive". Well, I do not support progressive metal actively, but I bet that no fan of this sub-genre would use this term in connection with Soulside Journey. It would be also unfair to speak of "free jazz death metal", because Darkthrone, there is no doubt about it, try to give their material a structure. Unfortunately, they are simply not able to form the songs successfully. Whenever they perform a good part, and there are doubtlessly a few pretty decent sections, they throw it away in a matter of seconds and turn to other ideas. It is therefore no wonder that the tasteful artwork of this wonky debut remains its biggest asset.

Some pitiless smart alecks criticize the Norwegian duo for being inconsistent. I do not care about their babbling, because Darkthrone mostly deliver high quality albums. But the most important reason for my lack of interest is that I really appreciated the stylistic modifications of the band after this half-baked debut whose only very little highlight is the opener. Therefore, come out and accompany Fenriz and Nocturno Culto on their journey if you like to do so. I stay at home.

Rating: 3.8 out of 10

Review by Felix on December 9, 2019.

I have a special relationship with this full-length, because it was my first album of a Norwegian band. Unfortunately, there are no further reasons to appreciate this record in a specific manner. Soulside Journey is stuffed with painfully meaningless death metal. Inter alia due to its then exotic status, I tried hard to become a fan of this work. But I had no chance.

Today they are dinosaurs, but back in 1991, Darkthrone were absolute beginners and did not know much about the art of writing enthralling songs. The gap between their ambitions and their abilities was greater than the distance between Oslo and Hammerfest. To be more precise, the songs start somewhere and end somewhere, but I cannot identify central ideas. Instead, it feels like listening to fragments, because the single pieces appear torn and inconsistent. Darkthrone spit on conventional song patterns and that is not bad per se. The problem is that the songs fail to create a comprehensible flow. Too much (mediocre) ideas show up, and, even worse, none of them is clearly defined. This leads to pretty obscure results, not least because of a high number of awkward breaks. "Grave with a View", to mention just one example, starts atmospheric with background chorale, but this approach remains incomplete and the following parts fail to evoke any kind of emotions.

Basically, I miss catchiness and velocity. Too many slow-moving parts occur and some of them have the potential to cause mental anguish. The longer the album goes on, the worse it gets. This is not so much a problem of the later songs. They are not better or worse than its predecessors. The annoying fact is the recognition that the entire album lacks great compositions. In view of the omnipresent mediocrity of the song material, it is almost useless to philosophize about the quality of the production. Briefly, the nasty sound cannot be dismissed as amateurish or inappropriate. It does not lack of power and creates a cold aura, no more and no less.

One may call the compositional approach "progressive". Well, I do not support progressive metal actively, but I bet that no fan of this sub-genre would use this term in connection with Soulside Journey. It would be also unfair to speak of "free jazz death metal", because Darkthrone, there is no doubt about it, try to give their material a structure. Unfortunately, they are simply not able to form the songs successfully. Whenever they perform a good part, and there are doubtlessly a few pretty decent sections, they throw it away in a matter of seconds and turn to other ideas. It is therefore no wonder that the tasteful artwork of this wonky debut remains its biggest asset.

Some pitiless smart alecks criticize the Norwegian duo for being inconsistent. I do not care about their babbling, because Darkthrone mostly deliver high quality albums. But the most important reason for my lack of interest is that I really appreciated the stylistic modifications of the band after this half-baked debut whose only very little highlight is the opener. Therefore, come out and accompany Fenriz and Nocturno Culto on their journey if you like to do so. I stay at home.

Rating: 3.8 out of 10

Review by Carl on December 27, 2020.

In my cd and vinyl collection I found some 20+ bands that have "necro" in their moniker. "So why not write a review for one of them?" I thought to myself. Choosing one was easy, it had to be Collapse of the Human Race by France's Necroblood, one of my highlights of 2017.

This is one hell of a vile piece of black/death metal savagery here. After an intro (that lasts a bit too long in my opinion) the orgy of depravity begins. Downtuned guitars and distorted bass collide with pummeling drums and growling vocals to create a whirlwind of suffocating darkness that feels as if you're being slowly beaten to death and the riffing sounds absolutely lethal! The clear yet unpolished production makes sure that the music does not turn into a blur but remains transparent enough to not get boring. On top of this, the band knows how to build in some variation within the individual songs. The music is a highly volatile mix of death metal in the vein of Disma and Incantation and black metal (think of Black Witchery and the likes) with some grindcore influences to be heard as well. Slower parts come up to break the monotony and it is in these moments that the influence of a band like Archgoat becomes apparent. Another positive aspect is that the band incorporated some searing lead guitars in the mix, adding some subtler touches to the onslaught without losing the overall intensity of the music. It all blends together in a painfully beautiful blast of primal rage. This is a perfect example of how merciless black/death metal could and should sound without turning into the sound of a passing train.

Forget about romantic candlelight dinners in Paris and any other misconceptions you could have about the people of France. Music as vile and depraved as this is as far removed from that stuff as possible. It's total annihilation in audial form and I love it!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Carl on December 27, 2020.

In my cd and vinyl collection I found some 20+ bands that have "necro" in their moniker. "So why not write a review for one of them?" I thought to myself. Choosing one was easy, it had to be Collapse of the Human Race by France's Necroblood, one of my highlights of 2017.

This is one hell of a vile piece of black/death metal savagery here. After an intro (that lasts a bit too long in my opinion) the orgy of depravity begins. Downtuned guitars and distorted bass collide with pummeling drums and growling vocals to create a whirlwind of suffocating darkness that feels as if you're being slowly beaten to death and the riffing sounds absolutely lethal! The clear yet unpolished production makes sure that the music does not turn into a blur but remains transparent enough to not get boring. On top of this, the band knows how to build in some variation within the individual songs. The music is a highly volatile mix of death metal in the vein of Disma and Incantation and black metal (think of Black Witchery and the likes) with some grindcore influences to be heard as well. Slower parts come up to break the monotony and it is in these moments that the influence of a band like Archgoat becomes apparent. Another positive aspect is that the band incorporated some searing lead guitars in the mix, adding some subtler touches to the onslaught without losing the overall intensity of the music. It all blends together in a painfully beautiful blast of primal rage. This is a perfect example of how merciless black/death metal could and should sound without turning into the sound of a passing train.

Forget about romantic candlelight dinners in Paris and any other misconceptions you could have about the people of France. Music as vile and depraved as this is as far removed from that stuff as possible. It's total annihilation in audial form and I love it!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10