Stereogum skriver om Darkthrone 's album Sardonic Wrath:
"Darkthrone found a new creative energy starting with 2003's Hate Them, and coming off the recording of that album, that started immediately on its follow-up, 2004's Sardonic Wrath. (That title is borrowed from a line in the Satanic Bible's The Book Of Satan: "I blast out the ghastly contents of philosophically whited sepulchers and laugh with sardonic wrath!")
Sardonic Wrath was recorded in Oslo over six days in April 2003 with engineer Lars Klokkerhaug, who also worked with the band on Hate Them, and surely because of Klokkerhaug's involvement, as well as the band's rush to get back to work, Sardonic Wrath feels like something of a continuation of its predecessor. Again the band is dealing in riff-based, crushingly heavy, mostly mid-paced black 'n' roll, with Fenriz contributing some complete songs (as well as all lyrics); again the sound balances gnashing rawness with studio sheen. Sardonic Wrath feels a bit darker than Hate Them, but such comparisons are made on a finely calibrated scale, and are extremely relative by any standard."