Kolbotn, Norway's DARKTHRONE will release their new album, The Underground Resistance, on February 25th in Europe and February 26th in North America, via Peaceville Records.

Darkthrone leader Fenriz recently spoke with Rock Overdose about the new album, and other topics. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Q: The 16th album from Darkthrone will be out in a month. What are your thoughts after 16 albums? For me it’s not the fact that you have so many albums, but the quality of them and the differences among them.

A; "I am thinking we are almost as productive as our countrymen MOTORPSYCHO! And at least as varied, I mean most bands don’t vary a lot, if they do they do it SAFELY and boringly and maybe also change their name. ?ut as humans don’t change name just because we change, and Darkthrone is a NATURAL band, so we also don’t change. But I understand people who think we should have changed name. But then we would also had to change after our 3rd demo, and after the Soulside Journey and Goatlord albums, and also after the Sardonic Wrath album. No, we try to do it our way instead, the natural way. No plans, only we do what we feel like in a natural way and follow our hearts."

Q: I would say that the tilte, The Underground Resisatnce, is somehow a continuity to the title The Cult Is Alive. Right? What is an underground resistance for a music fan like you? Is it only the survival of albums from the golden era of the ‘80s with those cult productions or something more?

A: "Hehe, nice train of thought there! For me it’s the only production. I STRONGLY MEAN WITH ALL MY HEART that no ONE metal style needs more modern or plastic or compressed production. They only need Master of Puppets sound, or Piece Of Mind by IRON MAIDEN. Bringing more modern sound production techninques than that destroyed thousands of bands in my ears. And more and more people are with me, thinking just this! 2012 was the biggest year of 1970s sounding music (both in music and production) since the actual 1970s!! YES! REVENGE!! VICTORY!!! Fuck the typical sound of 1997!!! Soulless shit. The underground resistance is fighting for the old metal sound. They have large record collections and cultivated taste. They CARE about music. A large band that sounds cult is still underground (HOUR OF 13). Small bands that copy overground shopping mall metal like SLIPKNOT are overground because they WANT TO BE overground even if they will never succeed. That is one of the differences with overground mentality and underground mentality."

Read the full interview at this location.

The Underground Resistance is Darkthrone's latest venture through the metal cosmos, and first new album since the 2010 opus Circle The Wagons. The Underground Resistance contains Darkthrone's trademark masterful riffing in a broad range of styles, effortlessly bounding through the annals of classic metal, taking in thrash, speed and black metal, and not forgetting a dose of punk. All in all a ferocious and dynamic set of tracks drenched in Fenriz's and Nocturno's rich and diverse tastes in all things metal, primarily those rooted firmly in the spirit of the 80's. Six tracks long, and each one an epic in itself, this is undoubtedly Darkthrone's strongest outing of late.

Check out the album artwork, courtesy of the iconic and celebrated artist Jim Fitzpatrick, below:

The Underground Resistance was written and recorded spring 2010 to summer 2012 at Necrohell 2 studios by the band themselves. The album was mastered by Jack Control at Enormous Door in Texas.

The Underground Resistance tracklisting:

'Dead Early'

'Valkyrie'

'Lesser Men'

'The Ones You Left Behind'

'Come Warfare, The Entire Doom'

'Leave No Cross Unturned'

'Leave No Cross Unturned' is streaming below:

Pre-order the album at this location.

Commented Fenriz, "Three songs each, Ted's are flown from the universe of metal with his strongest voice ever so far. Songs of mine are torn from the wombs of the riders of rohan of metal, safely cradled in 1985 style."

An album trailer can be seen below:

Darkthrone began life in the late 80's as a thrash/death metal act and progressed through technical death/doom metal experimentation to become a legend of the black metal world and one of the original leading bands of the Norwegian scene, as well as inspiring a whole generation of metal bands.

Complete album details to follow. More on Darkthrone at this location.