With its punk-meets-Celtic Frost/Hellhammer sounds, The Cult Is Alive shows that legendary black metal band Darkthrone is indeed alive, although moving away from their cold and monolithic traditional black metal roots just a bit. It's no secret of drummer Fenriz's love for Celtic Frost and Hellhammer, in fact, were it not for those influences this might have been just an extreme punk album with speedy guitar riffs, garbled vocals, and manic drums. Most of the Frost-ish tunes bookend the CD, like "The Cult Or Goliath", "Atomic Coming" and "Korebygyende Krig", complete with exhuberant, almost Morbid Tales type rhythms and Tom G. Warrior inspired grunts, especially on the hilarious "Graveyard Sluts". Otherwise though, many of the tracks here sound too similar to each other, and really don't work as solid black metal pieces due to the heavy punk nature of the songs. Perhaps that was Darkthrone's intention, but I'm not sure how long time fans of the band will feel about The Cult Is Alive. They probably had a blast recording this album, as at its core it's 38-minutes of manic and upbeat punk/metal pieces with dashes of early black/death styles, but overall it lacks variety and the vocals are weak. In the end, I think a lot of people might have expected more...I know I certainly did.
Track Listing
1. The Cult Or Goliath
2. Too Old Too Cold
3. Atomic Coming
4. Graveyard Slut
5. Undergods And Overlords
6. Whisky Funeral
7. De Underjordiske (Ælia Capitolina)
8. Tyster På Gud
9. Shut Up
10. Forebyggende Krig
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