Darkthrone outdo themselves with "Leave No Cross Unturned"

Late yesterday afternoon metal fans on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and message boards were losing their collective minds over “Leave No Cross Unturned”, the shockingly good new song by Darkthrone, from their forthcoming album The Underground Resistance, which is set to be released February 25 on Peaceville. While everyone was expecting another decent exercise in crust punk like the Norwegians’ last few albums, the duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have pulled the rug out from their audience by reverting back to the straight-ahead heavy metal of the mid-1980s. Built around riffs that mirror the simple melodies of Manilla Road and the crushing, string-bending heaviness of early Celtic Frost (punctuated by a Tom Warrior-esque “UGH!”) and kicking off with a brilliantly silly King Diamond imitation by Fenriz, the song is nothing like anything Darkthrone have ever done before. And good on them, because “Leave No Cross Unturned” absolutely destroys. It’s their best song since “Canadian Metal”, and if you haven’t heard it yet, do so at once: