Get retro and necro with Norway's 8-bit occultists Darkhan

(Image credit: Darkan)

The alliance of black metal and technology isn’t an entirely new phenomenon, although if you’ve listened to GosT, or even Aborym and thought, yeah, but why can’t the whole thing be raw, primitive, dedicated to Satan and just a bit more debasing, damnation is at hand in the form of Norway’s Darkhan.

Dealing in defiantly retro ‘blackbit’, their forthcoming, self-titled debut EP is 8-bit atavism at its murkiest, steeped in the unholy atmospheres of black metal’s second wave but given added spookiness by electronic textures that sound like your ZX Spectrum has been possessed.

Darkhan is due to be released on August 30, on on limited crystal transparent octagon and square seven-inch, as well as digitally, but we have an exclusive preview in the form of a pixelart video for the track Fanden – a vision of Hell where Satan himself is your End Of Level Boss and a rudimentary funeral march is your soundtrack for all eternity.

So without further ado, load your tape of Atic Atac backwards, put the ‘spite’ in ‘sprite’, and give yourself to the Trve Nerdic Black Metal that is Fanden below!

Visit Darkhan's Facebook page here

And pre-order the Darkhan EP here!

Darkan EP cover art — (Image credit: Darkan)

Having freelanced regularly for the Melody Maker and Kerrang!, and edited the extreme metal monthly, Terrorizer, for seven years, Jonathan is now the overseer of all the album and live reviews in Metal Hammer. Bemoans his obsolete superpower of being invisible to Routemaster bus conductors, finds men without sideburns slightly circumspect, and thinks songs that aren’t about Satan, swords or witches are a bit silly.