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Category: Immortal

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The last couple of years have been fairly turbulent and eventful for Bergen, Norway-based black metal pioneers Immortal. The mystic realm of Blashyrkh has seen a great deal of conflict and battle recently. Most of said battles seem not to concern itself with Blashyrkh although they are still fought in the North. As in the Northern courts. First Demonaz and Horgh battled estranged frontman (and multi-instrumentalist) Abbath over ownership of the ailing brand. The result was the uniformly and universally barbaric "Northern Chaos Gods" in 2018. Apparently in the intervening five years there was a falling out between co-founder Demonaz and longtime drummer Horgh. The sternly bearded, spiked, and corpse-painted Norsemen spent the pandemic years fighting each other over the trademark plunging the once unstoppable and war-forged Immortal in an extended second hiatus. Now that the legal dispute with Horgh has been settled Demonaz (effectively the sole remaining member through sheer will, determination, or attrition) is back with the suitably antagonistically titled "War Against All". Is the third time the charm? As soul singer Edwin Starr famously asked in 1970, “War, what is it good for?”

There’s no contesting the historical importance of Immortal’s contributions to the fledging Norwegian black metal scene. While chaotic and rambunctious “Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism” was a clear delineation between their past in Old Funeral and the present, conceptually and musically. The band truly came into their own and made their mark with “Pure Holocaust”. It offered a barbaric fusion of early Bathory and Blasphemy informed war-like black metal and “Battles In the North” streamlined that sound to ice-cold perfection. Each individual chapter of the Holocaust Metal trilogy stands recognized as an undefeated genre classic. The band started to lose its way with the sloppily executed “Blizzard Beasts”. The recording debut of Horgh was indeed bestial and a love-note to all things Morbid Angel but a subpar demo-like production reduced it to a whiff rather than the veritable storm it was ought to be. After years of performing acute tendinitis caught up with Demonaz forcing him into a more managerial role and Abbath promptly steered Immortal into a more easily digestible anthemic black/thrash metal direction for the trio of "At the Heart of Winter", "Damned in Black", and "Sons of Northern Darkness". In 2009 the grim and frostbitten duo reconciled for “All Shall Fall” and the rest, well, is history.

'War Against All' and 'Thunders Of Darkness' open the record in a classic one-two in tradition of 'Battles in the North' and 'Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms'. 'Wargod' is the prerequisite slow-building epic Bathory worship track and very much modeled after 'Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)', complete with an acoustic guitar break and slight washes of subdued keyboards exactly where you’d expect. 'No Sun' is an apparent callback to 'The Sun No Longer Rises' but is nowhere near as scorching with its steady marching trudge. 'Return to Cold' continues with the mid-paced march and is a very thinly-veiled retread of 'Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)' structurally, melodically, and otherwise. 'Norlandihr' is an instrumental harking back to the days of "Pure Holocaust". 'Immortal' is Demonaz' (very obvious) state of intent and his attempt at creating a contemporary hymn in vein of 'Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)'. Since "Battles in the North" closed out with a Blashyrkh-themed song "War Against All" concludes with "Blashyrkh My Throne". Familiarity tends to breed the blackest of contempt and while “War Against All” is uniformly strong a slightly broader musical scope and some variation (do another gloomy ‘Unholy Forces Of Evil’ or atmospheric ‘Mountains Of Might’ already) would be appreciated.

Having alienated or exhausted any and all former members for this session Demonaz hired latter day Enslaved bass guitarist Arve Isdal who has a well-established reputation as a notorious mercenary unencumbered by trivial things such as integrity (artistic, personal and otherwise) and who's in the habit of lending his services in the blink of an eye to whichever project is willing to part with the right amount of money. Drummer Kevin Kvåle is a relative newcomer and he follows the template of Horgh by delivering an absolute stellar performance with an avalanche of blasts and a cascade of double bass. The bass guitar was actually clearly audible and integral to the music when it was performed by Peter Tägtgren on "Northern Chaos Gods" here it's conspicuous only by its absence. Thankfully, Demonaz can still solo with the best of them. Perhaps it would be wise for Demonaz to make Kvåle a permanent addition to give Immortal sonic continuity and hire session bass players for live campaigns.

Ever since Demonaz took creative control Immortal has, for better or worse, become enamored with its own legend. If anything Blashyrkh is a concept ripe for expansion and exploration. For whatever reason (mostly nostalgia, if we were to make an educated guess) Demonaz has become a victim of his band's own limited creative mythology and instead of building and expanding upon established and existing concepts the post-Abbath albums are aggressively and regressively intertextual (often close to being embarrassingly self-referential) as far as the lyrics go. "Northern Chaos Gods" was emblematic of exactly that and "War Against All" perseveres with the nostalgic pastiche route regularly bordering dangerously close on parody. Nobody’s expecting Bal-Sagoth levels of detail but the whole Blashyrkh thing comes across as more of an afterthought rather than the supposed central concept. For a realm of might and magic Blashyrkh doesn't come off as very fantastic these days.

Demonaz continues to recycle past assets with this all too familiar looking Mattias Frisk artwork. While not ugly or unfitting it's little different from the monochrome Jannicke Wiese-Hansen drawing for "Northern Chaos Gods" and the Pär Olofsson digital rendering for “All Shall Fall” before that. It beggars belief that Nuclear Blast continues to let him get away with it too. It makes you long for the halcyon days when silly band photos were de rigueur. Now is the time to expand upon these concepts instead of repeating them with little to no variation. Looking to the past for inspiration is one thing but reducing Immortal to name-checking a handful of choice phrases and visual cues is doing nobody any favors. Oh yeah, the iconic (and vastly superior) original logo is still very much absent and very much missed. Make of that what you will. Immortal might be undying, unyielding but new blood is very much needed.

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Immortal have fallen on some particularly hard times of late. “All Shall Fall”, the supposed grand return to form, is almost a decade behind us. “Blizzard Beasts”, far from Immortal's finest hour, dates all the way back to 1997. When severe tendinitis sidelined Demonaz, frontman Abbath switched to guitar and bassists here hired. While there’s no denying that Immortal grew in profile during Abbath’s creative reign his records seldom captured the spirit of the classic trilogy of “Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism”, “Pure Holocaust”, and the uniformly barbaric “Battles In the North”. Now that Abbath is out of the picture, Demonaz (always the more level-headed of the duo) is free to restore Immortal to its former glory. “Northern Chaos Gods” is the album that should have immediately followed the abysmally produced wimper “Blizzard Beasts”. Has Demonaz been able to shake off the rust and creative stasis of Abbath’s decade-long reign and steer Immortal back to relevance? Judging by “Northern Chaos Gods” the best is yet to come for the Hordaland horde.

The last couple of years have been turbulent to say the least. In 2015 long simmering personal – and creative differences finally came to a boil prompting iconic frontman (and multi-instrumentalist) Abbath Doom Occulta to branch out on his own, taking with him an album’s worth of song material, and soon the cursed realm of Blashyrkh formed the arena for the two opposing factions to battle out their legal differences in court. Abbath formulated a solo project simply called Abbath and released called (what else?) “Abbath”. Not that we’d expect anything different from Abbath. Abbath is Abbath with all the good and bad that entails. Precious few bands can survive the loss of a beloved frontman and even fewer can come back stronger and more focused than before. That seems to have happened with Immortal. Demonaz and Horgh have duly regrouped as a duo with Demonaz taking up the vocal mantle. For the first time in over two decades Demonaz can be heard playing guitar again, after undergoing surgery in 2013. Reidar Horghagen remains one of the genre’s most criminally underrated drummers and “Northern Chaos Gods” brims with the sort of fury and aggression many believed Immortal no longer had left in them. “Northern Chaos Gods” is the unbridled force of two men hellbent on reclaiming their former glory. Immortal hasn’t sounded this hellish and icy in a long, long time – or at least not since “Battles In the North”.

Unlike some of its brethren Immortal never experimented with left-of-field influences nor did they stray too far from their original template. However that doesn’t mean there weren’t distinct phases in band’s multiple-decade career. “Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism” is as much of an early death metal record as it was an early black metal offering. For the most part it was a continuation of what Old Funeral did before them. On “Pure Holocaust” and especially “Battles In the North” Immortal came into its own and “Blizzard Beasts”, demo production notwithstanding, pushed the Holocaust Metal (or Norsecore) sound as far as it possibly could while simultaneously worshipping at the altar of Morbid Angel (“Altars Of Madness” and “Covenant” in particular). Perhaps it’s nostalgia talking, but “Northern Chaos Gods” (was somebody listening to Centurian during pre-production?) is the closest to “Pure Holocaust” Immortal has sounded in decades.

It combines the unflinching barbarism of “Battles In the North” with the straighforward intensity of “Blizzard Beasts”. The title track was released as an advance single ahead of the album and bursts with the kind of ravenous bloodlust and vitriol Immortal hasn’t showcased since “Battles In the North”. ‘Into Battle Ride’ is what “Blizzard Beasts” should have sounded like. ‘Grim and Dark’ and ‘Called to Ice’ sound like vintage “Pure Holocaust” cuts. ‘Gates to Blashyrkh’ and ‘Where Mountains Rise’ is a callback to ‘A Perfect Vision Of the Rising Northland’, ‘Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)’ and ‘Mountains Of Might’. There’s a point to be made that “Northern Chaos Gods” might be a little too much of a throwback to the hallowed trilogy, but it’s also the strongest product Immortal has lend its name to in years.

Is there reason for excitement with “Northern Chaos Gods”? Most certainly. Immortal hasn’t sounded this icy and lethal in a long, long time. Demonaz can still pull off an epic sounding solo and Horgh can compete with any young drummer as far as intensity and blasts is concerned. The monochrome artwork and self-referential songtitles as ‘The Gates Of Blashyrkh’, ‘Grim and Dark’ and ‘Mighty Ravendark’ might not exactly burst with creativity, but “Northern Chaos Gods” – at least on the musical end of things – is a good first step in restoring the band to its former glory. Despite, or rather in spite of, its immediacy and breakneck pace is “Northern Chaos Gods” in no hurry to forward or expand upon the Blashyrkh concept, and some of the lyrics almost too obviously recycle songtitles and even entire passages from beloved band staples. Which doesn’t mean that “Northern Chaos Gods” isn’t enjoyable exactly for what it is. Considering the turmoil and tribulations Immortal faced over the last years it’s nothing short of breathtaking that they could summon something this incendiary so late in their career. It’s not exactly a great creative renaissance, or a grand reinvention of the duo’s vintage Holocaust Metal sound, in fact it’s exactly the opposite. “Northern Chaos Gods” is regressive in exactly the right ways. It’s certainly no new classic but what it does conclusively prove is that Demonaz was the silent force on the band’s early records.

It’s unbelieveable enough that more than twenty years after their last good record Immortal is able to conjure up such fury and rekindle the flame of inspiration that spawned essential genre records as “Pure Holocaust” and “Battles In the North”. Demonaz still worships at the altar of Bathory’s “Blood Fire Death” and if the venom is anything to go by he was none too pleased with Abbath taking the band into more populist realms. Is it Immortal’s much pined after return to form? Maybe. Maybe not. “Northern Chaos Gods” is just a tad too regressive and self-referential for that. It does conclusively prove that Demonaz is perfectly able to hold his own without Abbath leading the charge. The sterile Peter Tägtgren production once again proves why he is loathed in purist circles. The monochrome artwork from Jannicke Wiese-Hansen (who designed the original and vastly superior Immortal logo, conspicuously absent here) recreates the Pär Olofsson rendering for “All Shall Fall”. Interestingly it’s only the second Immortal album (1999’s “At the Heart Of Winter” preceding it) not to have a band picture for cover art. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In other words, everything is well in the grim and frostbitten kingdoms of Blashyrkh. It seems that Immortal needed to get rid of Abbath to return to the essence of what made them popular in the first place.