Warthur Blizzard Beasts saw Demonaz' last album as the band's lead guitarists, before the onset of tendonitis forced him to step down as a performing member of the band. (It speaks a lot to the friendship between him and Abbath that Demonaz is still considered a full band member, penning all the lyrics.) It's interesting to ponder what direction the band's music might have taken had Demonaz not been forced to step down, because Blizzard Beasts finds them moving in the direction of death metal - in particular, some of the guitar solos put me in mind of Morbid Angel, and Abbath's vocals drift towards death metal grunts instead of black metal shrieks at more than one point.

To be honest, the end result isn't a stellar example of blackened death metal (or deathened black metal), so I'm inclined to say this is one of the less essential Immortal releases, but at the same time it's an entertaining (if brief) listen and I'm not sorry I own it.

adg211288 Immortal is a band that won’t ever win any longest running album awards, but the length of Blizzard Beasts, their fourth album is rather pitiful to say the least. Even by Immortal’s standard it’s short. It clocks it at just 28:56, not even a full half hour of music. I have CD’s that are supposed to be only extended plays that are longer than this full length. At least everything else by Immortal clocks in at a time of at least 33:46 (Pure Holocaust).

I am a strong believer in quality over quantity, so what really grates at me is that this isn’t actually that good. Immortal have opted for one of those pointless intro type tracks which just consists of some random noises and Abbath screaming some random words. The first proper song, the title track Blizzard Beasts isn’t anything special either. Mediocre black metal. The same applies for Noctambulant.

Nebular Ravens Winter, Suns that Sank Below and Winter of the Ages are much better though. New drummer Horgh has put a new-found energy into Immortal’s music, and they have found more melody on this album, but for the most part it is just the actually song writing that lets it down when put up against their other releases. There is some lead guitar from Demonaz, which stands out much better than his leads from previous album Battles in the North, as production has been greatly improved here.

Mountains of Might is the best song here, not just because its one of the few that clocks in at over three minutes. But it has some varity aside from full on guitar riffs, and guttural vocals. It has its heavy parts, and its clean tone guitar type parts, which they do vary when they appear. It was one of the only times that I can recalled thinking that growls work over a clean tone.

One thing that I feel the need to make note of is the fact that some songs sound more like death metal than black metal. The song Battlefields is a good example of this. It’s more in Abbath’s vocals than the instrument playing of the three-piece, although it in itself is decidedly different from Blizzard Beasts three predecessors, but runs throughout the album.

Despite some good songs, there’s not much on here that would go well on an Immortal best-of album. Only one song, Mountains of Might would get a guarantied place on such an album, with Nebular Ravens Winter and Winter of the Ages close behind if there was room after their other albums were taken into account. Immortal’s weakest? Yes I think so. Maybe taking that into account it’s a good thing this album is so short, for boredom didn’t really have a chance to set in.

metalmillennium Yet another new album from Immortal and after adding a new drummer, Horgh.

Coming alive with Abbath's trademark rasp, tribal drums and howling winds, the cd starts off pretty well. But that doesn't last too long. The unfortuneate thing about this album is that it starts off so well and then loses ground until it can't catch up. Mixing a few decent songs with some disasters doesn't work too well, especially with some decent, thrown together production to top things off. Every aspect of Immortal is still present, but they have put things together in a poor way, leaving the album to degrade itself from song 1. This is Horgh's first recording with the band and he shows some decent drumming, but is a far cry from what he sounds like today. This would be Demonaz's last recording with the band due to tendinitis in his right wrist, and it dissapoints me to see him close his career with a recording this like one. The variation, uniqueness and production of Immortal's sound has gone downhill on this album. As much as the cd tries to keep you interested, it just doesn't follow through and suffers being shelved after the third or fourth song, even with the songs "Nebular Ravens Winter" and "Blizzard Beasts".

Unless you're an Immortal fanatic, avoid this one.