A Blaze in the Northern Sky: the album Darkthrone's label didn't want
No colour, no painting, no logo-shaped monster. Just a white face with black eyes coming out of the night. In 1991 this was not what anyone expected from a death metal band.
Almost the whole sheet is black. At the top, the spiky Darkthrone logo. In the middle, a white face in black and white make-up, mouth open, hair flying, as if it has just burst out of the dark. A pale hand reaches in from the left, another grips something in the lower corner. That is all. No colours, no painted landscape, no monster. And somehow it is scarier than any of them.
The face in the dark
The face belongs to Ivar Enger, the band's rhythm guitarist, who went by the name Zephyrous. The make-up is corpse paint, the black and white mask that early Norwegian black metal made its own. Grainy, dark and with no polish at all, the photo sounds exactly like the record.
Zephyrous did not stay long. His last recordings with the band are on Under a Funeral Moon, and Darkthrone's own version of the story is that he went into a forest and never came back.
From death metal to black
In 1991 Darkthrone had released Soulside Journey, a solid death metal debut. Then Fenriz, Nocturno Culto and Zephyrous decided to turn to black metal. Bassist Dag Nilsen did not like the change and left, though he still played bass on the record as a session musician. The album was recorded in August 1991 at Creative Studios in Kolbotn, the same place where Mayhem had made Deathcrush. Fenriz later admitted it felt rushed, with lots of death metal riffs played in a black metal way.
Too weak, said the label
Their label, Peaceville, expected another death metal album and wanted the sound remixed, calling it too weak. The band refused and threatened to release it on Euronymous's small label, Deathlike Silence, instead. Peaceville gave in, and A Blaze in the Northern Sky came out as recorded on 26 February 1992. Thin, freezing and proudly lo-fi, just the way the band wanted it.
About the poster
This is the A Blaze in the Northern Sky sleeve printed as a 50 × 70 cm (20 × 28 in) portrait poster, from 2024. It is an original magazine insert, never hung, with no staple holes, folded three times as issued. The sheet is double-sided, with KISS "Love Gun" on the back.
Browse all original Darkthrone posters.
Quick answers
Who is on the cover of A Blaze in the Northern Sky?
Ivar Enger, known as Zephyrous, Darkthrone's rhythm guitarist at the time, in black and white corpse paint.
Where was A Blaze in the Northern Sky recorded?
At Creative Studios in Kolbotn, Norway, in August 1991.
When was A Blaze in the Northern Sky released?
On 26 February 1992, on Peaceville Records, after the label first wanted the album remixed.
How big is the poster?
50 × 70 cm (about 20 × 28 inches), portrait. It is a separate insert, so it has no staple holes, and it is folded three times as issued.
What is on the other side?
KISS "Love Gun". The sheet is double-sided, so you choose which cover goes on the wall.