Darkthrone "A Blaze In The Northern Sky"

A Blaze in the Northern Sky is the second studio album by Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone. It was released on 26 February 1992 by Peaceville Records. It contained the band's first black metal recordings, and is considered a classic within the genre. It was the first album of what fans dub the "Unholy Trinity", the other albums being Under a Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger. It was the last album to feature bassist Dag Nilsen.

Darkthrone's first album, 1991's Soulside Journey, was a Swedish-styled death metal release. After recording Soulside Journey, the band began writing songs with more black metal traits. This yielded the instrumental demo Goatlord.

After recording Goatlord, three of the band members—Fenriz, Nocturno Culto and Zephyrous—decided that they wanted to focus on making black metal music. Bassist Dag Nilsen disliked this shift in direction, and quit the band. However, he agreed to record his bass parts for the album as a session member. A Blaze in the Northern Sky was recorded during August 1991 at Creative Studios in Kolbotn; the same studio where Mayhem recorded their influential Deathcrush EP. In an interview, Fenriz said that the album was somewhat "rushed" and that many of the songs have "death metal guitar riffs" played in a "black metal style".


Due to Darkthrone's sudden change from death metal to black metal, Peaceville Records was unwilling to release the album as it was. The shocked record label had expected that the band would continue recording death metal in the vein of Soulside Journey. Peaceville agreed to release the album only if they were able to remix it, stating that the sound was "too weak". The band then threatened to release it through Deathlike Silence Productions, the record label owned by Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth of Mayhem (Who the album is dedicated to). However, Peaceville eventually agreed to release the album as it was recorded.

The album was released by Peaceville on 26 February 1992. The first CD pressing was limited to 2000 copies and had a white disc. The person who appeared on the front cover was Ivar Enger (Zephyrous), the band's rhythm guitarist.


It was remastered and reissued by Peaceville in 2003, as well as being repackaged in a cardboard digipak. The second chapter of a four-part video interview (spanning the first four albums) with Fenriz and Nocturno was also included. A Blaze was reissued again through Peaceville in December 2009 as a double gatefold LP on 180 gram vinyl, limited to 2000 copies.

After recording his parts for the album, bassist Dag Nilsen left the band.

First press 1992 (VILE 28 CD): white disc (limited to 3000 copies). Second press 1992 (VILE 28 CD): Black disc. Third press with Music for Nations with number CDVILE 28, then with Snapper Music.

Bootlegs of the original version exist with a low print quality as well as leaving out some sentences. 

All the releases of A Blaze in the Northern Sky have a note saying "This album is eternally dedicated to the king of death/black metal Euronymous."

The first song on the album, "Kathaarian Life Code", is featured in the last scene of the 2002 film Demonlover.

Recording information:


Recorded at Creative Studios, August 1991, but released in the beginning of 1992.