Review by Felix on February 26, 2024.

For roughly three decades, I bought each and every Darkthrone album. But every story comes to its end one day, even or maybe especially the very long ones. “Astral Fortress” is the next step into meaningless mediocrity and it is one step too much. Darkthrone stroll through a landscape of average or expressionless riffs, lines and melodies. Lively vibes are more or less completely missing, We’d better not even talk about style issues. The material is too lame for any form of extreme metal, not heavy enough for doom and it does not fall under traditional heavy metal, inter alia due to the typical special ingredients of Darkthrone. Once they were somehow charming (the sick sound of their classic works), not they are just moronic (the vocal break in the dragging, tiring and boring “The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea”). So many seas and no one has drowned this rubbish. Hard to understand.

Especially the long tracks are a challenge. I wish I could say they justify their playtime with a sufficient musical substance, but already the opener (eight minutes) is nothing but a waste of time. You don't have to reference the early classics to realise that this band has made much better music in the past. To give just three examples. When did the cool flow of “Across the Vacuum” die? At which point did the duo throw away the explosiveness of “The Cult of Goliath”? Who killed the energy of “Leave No Cross Unturned”? There are no traces or references to this on "Astral Fortress”.

Hardly any swinging rhythms, a little bit of Bathory hymns in the back of the head, plus vocals that can be called either rough or lifeless – do you really think these elements result in a good album? They don’t. Even the best songs do not blow me away. The comparatively good “Kevorkian Times” houses a respectable riff and a highly welcome speedy sequence, “Eon 2” might be offended that it was put last. At least it presents a smooth outro part. As sad as it is, that’s definitely more than some of its acoustic siblings have in their portfolio.

Let’s come back to the question of style. Of course, Darkthrone always felt free to change their approach and this was okay. They have proved that they can manage different genres and their evolution has mostly been a natural one. But to ignore the chains and frames of sub-genres does not give you the right to deliver disoriented hodgepodge. If the artwork marks the best component of an album, something has gone totally wrong. That’s the case here. “Astral Fortress” gives me almost nothing, neither the vapid tunes nor the run of the mill production. I am happy to see that the other reviewers had a good time with the album and I appreciate their opinions. I just cannot share their point of view.

Rating: 3.3 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on January 3, 2023.

Every time someone mentions Darkthrone, there is a big chance that Fenriz and Nocturno Culto are sitting in their studio at this very moment preparing some new material. It’s not a novelty to see the two of them come up with new stuff, record and release it in the matter of months, especially if you look at their past works which have roughly a year gap. Same goes for their new full-length album Astral Fortress, which was released on October 28th 2022, a bit more than a year after Eternal Hails, and although to some people it might be too soon for another Darkthrone album, for fans like myself the time is as good as any. The only question that remains is, will you be the one to take on this journey, ice-skating towards the Astral Fortress?

Their style of music hasn’t shifted much since Arctic Thunder, we still have more black, heavy and speed metal riffing with a bit of doom metal here and there, although maybe a bit more than it was on Eternal Hails. The first and also the most well-known track which is 'Caravan Of Broken Ghosts' has the most atmosphere on the entire album, starting out nice and easy with an acoustic guitar intro that switches to slow distorted guitar riffs and drumming, but also shifting to a faster heavy/speed metal style later on, and ending with a mid-tempo tremolo picking riff which calls a little throwback to the days of Soulside Journey. The fourth track 'The Sea Beneath The Seas Of The Sea' has some 70’s and 80’s heavy metal vibe to it when it comes to overall songwriting, with Fenriz singing a single sentence for just a brief moment and also some “crystal tone” synthesizers that play a big part in the song’s last quarter. The only instrumental track 'Kolbotn, West Of The Vast Forests' is probably the weirdest of the bunch, it has a very detuned piano playing which I think was supposed to create some creepy ambience but ended up just sounding eerie in my opinion. Another nice throwback to the days of Soulside Journey is the final track and a personal favorite of mine, 'Eon 2', which is basically the “sequel” to the final track 'Eon' from their first album. Although the track is nothing like the original death metal tune, it is worthy of a mention due to its galloping riffs, catchy melodies and the slow black metal riff during the verse. I know that people have complained about the ice-skating cover art, but I didn’t really mind it all that much because I mostly came here for the music and not for the album cover, which I’ll admit that it’s ridiculous but fun to look at. The sound production is mostly similar to Eternal Hails with a “frosty” and sharp guitar tone, echoing harsh vocals and clear sounding drums.

I still have a hard time expressing my feelings over Astral Fortress, because on one hand I like it, but on the other hand I still wish that there was a bit more to it. There are a few great songs like 'Caravan Of Broken Ghosts', 'The Sea Beneath The Seas Of The Sea' and 'Eon 2' and there are also songs with some acceptable and enjoyable moments like 'Impeccable Caverns Of Satan' and 'Stalagmite Necklace', but it doesn’t do quite much to impress me like their previous three albums. I think it’s an okay album that serves its purpose in being another addition to Darkthrone’s discography, it has instances of good songwriting but also very repetitive and generally uninteresting moments that leave a lot to be desired in my opinion, and will make you feel that this album maybe just maybe seems a bit too rushed. Whatever plans Darkthrone has in the future, I hope they won’t release another album so quickly without taking some time off, unless they have nothing else to do other than make music.

Rating: 7.6 out of 10