Transilvanian Hunger | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Darkthrone | ||||
Released | 17 February 1994 | |||
Recorded | November–December 1993 | |||
Genre | Black metal | |||
Length | 39:00 | |||
Label | Peaceville | |||
Producer | Darkthrone | |||
Darkthrone chronology | ||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Sputnikmusic |
Transilvanian Hunger is the fourth studio album by Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone. It was released in February 1994 by Peaceville Records.
Transilvanian Hunger was the band's first album to be recorded with just two members, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, following the departure of Zephyrous. The band remains a duo to this day.
Lyrics for four of the album's songs were written by the infamous Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes, who performed solo as Burzum. Fenriz handled all instruments on this album, as confirmed in at least two interviews.
The album was released on 17 February 1994. The cover art was a black-and-white photograph of Fenriz with a candelabrum, which bore a likeness to the cover of Mayhem's 1993 live album Live in Leipzig. The back cover stated that "Darkthrone is for all the evil in man" and listed the slogan "True Norwegian Black Metal".
Originally, the back cover also bore the words "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" ("Norwegian Aryan black metal"). Due to negative feedback from many distributors, however, the phrase was removed. The band also intended to issue another controversial statement to mark the album's release: "We would like to state that Transilvanian Hunger stands beyond any criticism. If any man should attempt to criticize this LP, he should be thoroughly patronized for his obviously Jewish behavior." In a press release, Peaceville Records issued both this statement and their own response, berating the sentiment but acknowledging that they could not censor their artists. Darkthrone issued a formal apology at Peaceville's behest. They said they had used "Arisk" to mean "true" or "pure" and that "Jewish" was Norwegian youth slang for "idiotic". Darkthrone included the following statement with their next album, Panzerfaust, the following year: "Darkthrone is certainly not a Nazi band nor a political band. Those of you who still might think so, you can lick Mother Mary's asshole in eternity." More recently, Fenriz disowned these past statements, describing them as "disgusting."