Transilvanian Hunger

Transilvanian Hunger is the fourth album by Darkthrone. Released in 1994, it was the band’s first album to be recorded with just two members, Nocturno Culto (lead guitar, bass, vocals) and Fenriz (drums, rhythm guitar, bass). The band would remain a duo from this point onwards. However they claim that this record is somewhat atypical for Darkthrone, since it is much faster, more simplistic, and it was made with a very “raw” or “low fidelity” recording style.

The back cover of the album states that “Darkthrone is for all the evil in man”. All Music Guide notes that the album, “boasts plenty of notoriety in the metal underground,” and that it has been a great influence on many black metal bands.

Lyrics for four of the album’s songs were written by Varg Vikernes aka. Burzum. He was imprisoned in 1993 for the murder of Mayhem guitarist Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth and for the arson of several churches. The ending of the song As Flittermice as Satans Spys contains a backmasked message. When the voice is played in reverse, it utters the phrase “In the name of God, let the churches burn.”

Originally, the back cover displayed the phrases True Norwegian Black Metal and Norsk Arisk Black Metal (Norwegian Aryan Black Metal), but due to the negative response of many distributors, the latter phrase was removed.