Formed in 1986 in the town of Kolbotn, Norway's Darkthrone went from playing death metal under the name Black Death to becoming one of the longest-running and most influential bands in the Norwegian burgeoning black metal scene. Led by multi-instrumentalists Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell, Ted "Nocturno Culto" Skjellum, and Ivan "Zephyrous" Enger, the group released its studio debut and only death metal album, Soulside Journey, in 1991. It was followed by A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992), the first installment of Darkthrone's "Unholy Trinity," which also comprises the seminal black metal albums Under a Funeral Moon (1993) and Transilvanian Hunger (1994). The latter was the group's first release as a duo after Zephyrous' departure in 1993. During the 2000s and 2010s, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto began incorporating elements from crust punk into their work, most notably on 2006's The Cult Is Alive, the band's first release to enter the charts in Norway and Sweden. These constant shifts in style would characterize the band's future output in the following years, as they experimented with other genres such as speed metal (2012's The Underground Resistance and 2016's Arctic Thunder) and doom metal (2019's Old Star and 2021's Eternal Hails......). Astral Fortress, came out in 2022 and peaked at number 23 on the German charts. Two years later, their twentieth studio album It Beckons Us All entered the French Top 200 while also charting in Germany and Finland.