Nostalgia Metal for Pussies - "The Underground Resistance" Review (71%)
If there's something the modern black metal scene likes to fawn over, it's music with empty calories. Excellent riffs, delectably prepared into a concoction without any lasting impressions.
Black metal has at this point made it into the realms of nostalgia, and genre-pandering releases such as Darkthrone's The Underground Resistance clearly prove it. The music found here harkens back to the glory days of the Norwegian early 90s - an era that Darkthrone is very familiar with for being one of its most influential bands - but is so firmly entrenched in its own sentimentality that it misses the original exploratory spirit of the genre.
Nothing on here is particularly offensive. As background music, The Underground Resistance is highly soothing and comforting for anyone already introduced into the genre, since it is so highly conscious not to disrupt its conventions - something that Darkthrone didn't shy away from doing in the past.
If you're the kind of person that likes Rice Crispies for breakfast, then this release might just be the one for you.
Nostalgia music faces the ultimate test: will people listen to it on a regular basis, in their regular lives? I'm not talking about the heroin and cigarettes crowd in/outside Oslo nightclubs, but normal people. Thoughtful, intelligent, realistic, well-adjusted people. Do they listen to it? Or is it something they think sounds "pretty cool", brings back a few memories, maybe would be good in a movie or black metal documentary, and then politely throw away and never hear it again?
The Underground Resistance qualifies as some of the better nostalgia black metal I've ever heard, but it's still nostalgia music for the sake of nostalgia.
Nostalgia Metal for Pussies
Music designed to pander to newer listeners is often excruciating. First, it must have an obvious novelty in style that usually defeats both common sense and the stylistic conventions of the genre it seeks to imitate. Next, it must appeal to people whose first instincts aren't necessarily the seeking of higher art forms, but rather a cheap, instant gratification out of "easy listening muzak". As part of this, it often favours plastic pop influences and garish aesthetics over conceptual integrity and musical talent.
Luckily, Darkthrone is not one of those derivative poser bands that shits out "flavour of the week" albums.
In fact, if you consider this as a tribute to early black metal - and not just early Norwegian black metal, as there are many Sodom, Blasphemy, Bathory and Hellhammer influences to be found - the album is quite listenable.
It won't revolutionize black metal in the way Under a Funeral Moon did, but neither does it pretend to do so.
The Underground Resistance is, like its predecessor Circle the Wagons, a tribute to the early influences of the Norwegian black metal scene, and those of Darkthrone in particular.
As boring as I find these fellatio/nostalgia albums, I'd listen to The Underground Resistance any day over Immortal's latest nu-metal turd.
Give it a listen, it's quite good metal.
The Underground Resistance score: 71/100.
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