HYLI Vol XXI: Darkthrone and The Tallest Man On Earth
Andy sends Patrick some black-metal OGs and Patrick sends Andy some Swedish folk that he inevitably will hate lol.
What if I do half the intro and Pat does the other half? Would he complain or think it’s fair? I guess we will find out. Hello, I hope you all had a great week being alive and existing. This week we learned that the movie star isn’t dead and films can still be fun and have heart.
I saw Tom Cruise fly planes fast this weekend and wanted to high-five my friend Andy. Dudes rock. Hope You See The Movie and Listen To Music and Like It.
Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky
Andy: Ever since the controversial Burzum week I’ve been stuck in a black metal black hole (Patrick: aren’t you always). Darkthone has been a big chunk of that and they’re definitely one of the best black metal bands from that era so it makes sense to introduce Pat to probably their most iconic album (I wouldn’t say that it is my favorite? I’d give that to the underappreciated 1995’s Panzerfaust).
Darkthrone started out as death metal with their first album Soulside Journey then pivoted to a more black metal sound in 1992. A lot of death metal influence can be found on this record which gives it an extra edge. “In The Shadow Of The Horns” is a classic black metal track. Frankly, it rules hard as hell. I mean it starts with creepy chanting and gollum-esq noises. You can’t beat that. Hope You Like It.
Patrick: I didn’t come to this one totally blind, as I have already listened to Darkthrone’s 1994 album, Transilvanian Hunger, and liked it decently. Overally, A Blaze in the Northern Sky is much more my tempo. I guess maybe I’ll listen to their first album since I thought the 4th one was Fine and the 2nd one was Great.
There’s some really fun guitar tones here. Something I’ve found from listening to a few of these 90s Scandanavian bands is that they like the guitars to sound like they’re recorded straight to the recording machine and not through a guitar amp. The distortion on this one sounds very DI to me, as opposed to a mic’d up cab or whatever. It rules.
Dudes voice is funny. He mumbles like a little gremlin dweeb sometimes and then he goes full Black Metal Dude and does the shrieking thing for a little bit (Andy: wtf rude). It’s the sound that I feel like everyone thinks of when they conjur up “black metal” in their head and he does it extremely well. The first half of the album is decent but when “Where Cold Winds Blow” kicks on, it’s a wild ride through to the end. I really, really liked this and will be adding it to the regular rotation, pending him not being a Nazi/racist/murderer. Are we dealing with one of those again, Andy? (Andy: Nah you’re good.)
The Tallest Man On Earth - There’s No Leaving Now
Patrick: I decided since he was such a whiny fucking baby about it that I’m going to give Andy a month of folk albums. Since I am a gracious friend, I will count back and include this album and the Damien Rice album as part of that month, so lucky for him (I guess?), he is halfway through. Folk is Good and I will make him Like It (Andy: will you tho).
The Tallest Man on Earth (dumb name imo) is a project that I liked a lot from its inception pretty much up until this point. After this he went electric, much like his idol Bob Dylan, and the results are a bit less For Me. But There’s No Leaving Now absolutely crushes it, imo. “1904” is a song that defined a lot of the time when I was becoming a friend of Andy’s; “Revelation Blues” is an A+ jam; “Little Brother” wrecks me. There’s something for everyone here. I love it. Hope You Like It.
Andy: This dude is 5′ 7.″ Some horseshit ass false advertising if you ask me. Not tall at all. I don’t know much/care much about Bob Dylan but I guess he wants to be Bob Dylan and people think he is doing a good enough job.
I very much enjoy this style compared to the previous folk stuff Pat has presented me (Patrick: wow!). I wouldn’t say I love it but I’m definitely putting this on before Damien Rice or Ben Howard or other youth pastors (Patrick: hmm!). This record is definitely less polished than the others which helps me a good bit. I don’t quite think he used a helicopter pilot helmet mic but he sure didn’t use the best one in the studio. The whole album has this fragile sort of sound that I think really improves these types of songs for me.
“1904” is a fun enough song. I fell asleep during “There’s No Leaving Now.” “Little Brother” is decently fun. I didn’t love it but I sure didn’t hate it. Pat said he’s gong to keep bullying me with two more weeks of folk but I hope they're closer to this than previous attempts. I Didn’t Hate It (Patrick: just say you like it jesus christ).