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Darkthrone

Norwegian black metal band

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ160119
Source-derived summary

Darkthrone is a Norwegian heavy metal band from Kolbotn, Akershus. Formed in 1986 as a death metal band named Black Death, in the early 1990s, Darkthrone switched to a black metal style influenced by Bathory and Celtic Frost, and were a leading band in the Norwegian black metal scene. Darkthrone has been a duo consisting of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto since guitarist Zephyrous left the group in 1993. The band has released 22 studio albums, but do not perform live and have sought to remain outside the mainstream.

The band's debut, Soulside Journey (1991), was their only death metal studio album. Their first three black metal albums, A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992), Under a Funeral Moon (1993), and Transilvanian Hunger (1994), are often called the "Unholy Trinity". These albums are considered the peak of the band's career and among the most influential black metal recordings.

Beginning with The Cult Is Alive (2006), the band diverged from black metal and shifted to a style more akin to "blackened" crust punk and speed metal. Since The Underground Resistance (2013), the band has incorporated classic heavy metal, doom and thrash, and their style has been described as "blackened heavy metal".

In 2016, the staff of Loudwire named them the 49th-best metal band of all time.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Darkthrone” is norwegian black metal band. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Darkthrone, Norwegian and black, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986, 1993, 1991, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1986. For this dossier, Darkthrone, Norwegian and black is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “norwegian black metal band” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q160119. VIAF identifies the subject as 156145970356732252814. The Library of Congress control number is no2009146775. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 1993, 1991 and 1992.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Darkthrone”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Darkthrone primary sources, Darkthrone archive and Darkthrone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Darkthrone”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Darkthrone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.