Black Metal Immortal

[Mr. Gregory]

Official Website

Current members:

• Demonaz Doom Occulta (Harald Nævdal [vocals, guitar])
• Horgh (Reidar Horghagen [drums])

Notable former members:

• Abbath Doom Occulta (Olve Eikemo [vocals, guitar])

Albums:

• Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism (1992)
• Pure Holocaust (1993)
• Battles in the North (1995)
• Blizzard Beasts (1997)
• At the Heart of Winter (1999)
• Damned in Black (2000)
• Sons of Northern Darkness (2002)
• All Shall Fall (2009)
• Northern Chaos Gods (2018)

Immortal is a long-running Norwegian black metal band. They're one of the so-called "second wave" black metal bands, and they were my gateway band into this subgenre of metal. Unlike most of the other second wave black metal bands, their lyrics aren't Satanic in nature. They're mostly about Blashyrkh, a cold, fictional realm created by Abbath and Demonaz. It's based somewhat on rural Norway, where they're from - except there are a lot of battles and demons and whatnot running around.

As for their sound, it's pretty much what you would expect from a traditional black metal band - low-fi production (at least, on their earlier albums), blistering blast beat drumming, frenetic tremolo-picked guitars, and raspy, harsh growled vocals. It's all here. I have every single one of their albums. I particularly like Pure Holocaust and everything from At the Heart of Winter onwards. I'm not sure what my favorite one is, but I tend to gravitate towards Sons of Northern Darkness the most, probably because it's the first one of theirs that I heard. If you've never heard of them and are thinking about giving them a shot, I'd recommend starting with either that album, Pure Holocaust, At the Heart of Winter, or even their newest album, Northern Chaos Gods.

Sadly, Abbath left Immortal in 2015 after a legal battle with the other band members over the rights to the band name. He's doing his own thing now under his stage name, and Demonaz and Horgh have decided to continue on under the Immortal banner. Demonaz did the vocals on Northern Chaos Gods, and he did a very good job in Abbath's place.

These guys are very talented musicians, but they're not afraid to let loose every once in a while and have fun. They're not a flat-out parody of a black metal band by any means, but they don't take themselves too seriously, as can be seen in the video for "All Shall Fall" below. I really like that about them.

Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss (from Pure Holocaust)

Solarfall (from At the Heart of Winter)

Triumph (from Damned in Black)

Sons of Northern Darkness (title track from that album)

All Shall Fall (title track from that album)

Northern Chaos Gods (title track from that album)

 

[Riff_Raff]

For the longest time since I got into Black Metal has Immortal been my favourite band in that section. My favourite 2 Black Metal albums of all time are Immortal albums in Sons of Northern Darkness at 1 and At The Heart of Winter at 2. Both have an awesome sound shift to more melodic territory. They still have very much the brutal fast and higher register riffs but they add in a lot of melodic and at times hypnotic sections of atmosphere.