1997's Goatlord remains the most controversial of all of Darkthrone's releases.  The music was recorded back in 1991 with the original four piece that produced Soulside Journey.  This was supposed to be the follow up to their classic debut.  As the story goes, three members (Fenriz, Zephyrous and Nocturno Culto) decided to take the band in a totally different musical and philosophical direction.  Their current project was scrapped and they recorded the black metal classic A Blaze In The Northern Sky.  As great as the new material was, there were always questions and speculation about the fate of the true follow up they recorded for Peaceville and what it sounded like.  Those questions were answered with Goatloard, but this has turned into their most hated release.  Darkthrone used the actual demos from 1991 instead of re-recording the music.  The vocals recorded in 1996 by Nocturno Culto and Satyr of Satyricon were a mix between black and death metal styles.  Also they added some cheesy keyboard and choir effects over the music that just sound stupid. 

Sadomachistic Rites is the unaltered demo from the 1991 sessions without the cheesy effects.  It is a demo recorded on a four track and sounds muffled and dull.  It is much louder than the official release.  It is interesting to hear the tuning and conversation (in Norwegian) between the band members as they are working out these tunes.  The music itself is absolute brilliance.  If Darkthrone decided to stay with death metal and properly record this music it would have been one of the greatest metal releases ever.  The music is brutal with the "cold dark and grim" Darkthrone aesthetic.  It makes me wonder exactly what lyrics would have written for them at that time.  The song titles are obviously working names, but all the music on this was used by the band for the official release.  It is great to hear this lost classic as it was originally conceived and is worth having.