“Homogeneity” would be the best word to describe this work. We all know that you can find Iron Maiden influences in your-very-new-metal-band-of-the-week and Deep Purple influences in Iron Maiden and Beatles influences in Deep Purple and Everly Brothers influences in Beatles an so on. But in “Transilvanian Hunger” Darkthrone succeds in making Black Metal sound as a non-metal and even non-rock music style, fulfilling a complete concept itself.
From the cover, the internal artwork and the back (with the legend “True Norwegian Black Metal”/“Norsk Arisk Black Metal”) to the mysterious-unique lo-fi sound (if there were tape recorders in the middle age, they would sound like this), the obsessive drumming and rhythm, the static melodies, the deep growling vocals and norwegian lyrics, ALL FITS PERFECTLY. There’s a a sort of consistent brown noise floor you can notice when every track finishes (generally bad cutted, you can also hear the “click” in some tracks).
The entire mix is said to be passed through a guitar distortion pedal (that was the secret…). The Rolex of all Black Metal albums, although if you don’t like metal get it anyway (but you should like unusual albums at least to enjoy this).