666sharon666 The band called Immortal in the 2010s going into the 2020s isn't the same band as they existed in their 1990s heyday. Abbath, the one mainstay since their debut album Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism in 1992, has been gone since 2015 after the unthinkable happened: he and Demonaz, now the sole full band member on War Against All, the tenth album under the Immortal name, parted ways. There have been legal disputes and now the two are off doing their own things in the black metal genre, Demonaz with Immortal and Abbath under his own moniker. The last album Northern Chaos Gods still had drummer Horgh to offer a bit of continuity from All Shall Fall, their sole album of their first comeback, but this time he has also gone. As Demonaz wasn't able to actually play on any Immortal album between At the Heart of Winter and All Shall Fall due to severe tendonitis (although remained a full member of the band) we find ourselves in the unusual situation where on War Against All there is no musician actually performing in common with those who performed on some of Immortal's best known records.

This is just preamble, because so long as there is one of them performing - Abbath or Demonaz - it's a true Immortal album. And I think that Demonaz is doing pretty well in his new role as lead vocalist as well as being able to play guitar again. This isn't the kind of black metal album that's going to break the mould and neither does anyone expect it to be. Immortal was part of the original early 1990s Norwegian scene and no matter what, they've always been true to their roots.

While I miss Abbath to an extent as the voice of Immortal, I do think that between the two albums Demonax has now done under the Immortal name since they went their separate ways have one-upped Abbath's output. I don't know if there is any bad blood between these two these days about the way things went down between them, or with Horgh, but it feels like if something holds the right to a last laugh, it's Demonaz. He was always the primary writer of Immortal, especially for lyrics, and that has showed in Immortal's recent output. With that said, I'd love for these two to put aside any differences they have and restore the band to what it's supposed to be: Abbath and Demonaz, performing together in a way that hasn't been recorded on an Immortal album since Blizzard Beasts in 1997.

Kev Rowland I don’t have the energy to try and encapsulate everything which has happened with Immortal over the years and the legal battles which have taken place, but since the departure of Abbath in 2015 Demonaz has again started playing guitar and also took on lead vocals. Drummer Horgh is no longer in the band, leaving Demonaz as the sole member (this was completed with producer/bassist/guitarist Arve Isdal (Enslaved) and guest drummer Kevin Kvåle (Gaahls Wyrd)). Immortal have long been thought of as one of the top black metal bands around, due to the importance of their first seven albums, with the last of these being 2002’s ‘Sons of Northern Darkness’. However, since then there has been a singular dearth of releases with just one album featuring Abbath, Demonaz and Horgh, and this is the second since Abbath departed and the first without Horgh since 1997’s ‘Blizzard Beasts’.

Okay, history lesson over, so what is this actually like? Well, it’s bloody good, that’s what. Demonaz stayed with the band as lyricist after he lost the ability to play guitar due to acute tendonitis back in the Nineties, but an operation in 2013 allowed him to play again, and he is obviously relishing the opportunity while he also shows he could have taken on a more leading role in the vocal department as he sounds as if he has always been doing this instead of just recently. This is a statement album if there ever was one, with Demonaz showing he is proud to be working under the name Immortal and is determined the music lives up to the legacy. This is not a cash-in, but rather a concerted powerful effort of someone who wants to restore what the band used to be about, driving the scene forward. Okay, so we could have done without the instrumental “Nordlandhir” as it is just too twee and nice when compared with the rest of the album, but Demonaz more than makes up for it with the likes of “Immortal” where he tells us he is a god of the North, “I am immortal, my spirit of ice, My blood is frozen, I dwell in the cold”. This has all the signs of a band reborn, with what is easily the best album from Immortal in many years. If you have wondered what has been happening with this once-great band then wonder no more, as they are back with a vengeance.

siLLy puPPy While IMMORTAL seems like it lives up to its name as one of the earliest examples of second wave black metal coming out of the frigid Norwegian angsty breeding grounds, this band has been subject to what the majority suffer as the decades cede to the next. In this case founder Abbath and later arrivals Horgh and Apollyon jumping ship after “All Shall Fall.” Nobody really expected anything significant ever to come out of IMMORTAL again but then fans we’re surprised to find “Northern Chaos Gods” faithfully keeping the second wave back metal flame alive in 2018, a year when most pioneering black metal acts had drifted into myriad directions. Whittled down to a mere trio that album kicked as like a muthafucker and to my ears at least promoted IMMORTAL to ranks of keepers of the old school flame.

Well it was inevitable a following album would ensue and here in 2023 five years later WAR AGAINST ALL has emerged from the icy fjords to once again show the whippersnappers how old school black metal is done only this time minus Horgh. Welcome to the Demonaz show! Yep, the sole founding member left to steer the IMMORTAL ship has pretty much taken control of the helm and recruited the talents of seasoned bassist Ice Dale who has played with many a band including Enslaved as well as drummer Kevin Kvåle of various lesser known bands such as Gaahis Wyrd, Harm and Horizon Ablaze. Sticking to the faithful playbook of the true and tried second wave sound, WAR AGAINST ALL follows in the footsteps of its predecessor by eschewing any experimental developments or journey into the forever cross-pollinating black metal universe. No way! This album just blows out your eardrums.

Pretty much the same shtick, a second wave black metal album set to 21st century head banging features the usual tremolo picking, raspy vocals, buried bass lines and three chord bombast that was quite popular some 30 years ago. However as Darkthrone has mostly abandoned its black metal roots and while bands like Enslaved went totally progressive, the new rendition of IMMORTAL has gravitated to the instant gratification that made their earliest albums so endearing however original fans of this style are also 30 years older and presumable more refined in their musical tastes and the younger audience is all about more mind-warping sophisticated black metal that veers into the psychedelic, avant-garde and progressive worlds. Nevertheless WAR AGAINST WAR is a decent if inferior album that takes on the old school charm.

Things have slowed down a bit from “Northern Chaos Gods.” That album rubbed me the right way because of its speed fueled savagery and incessant bombast that kept my adrenaline fueled for the entire run. WAR AGAINST ALL seems to have taken its approach to going even further back into the demo stages of the second wave. The songs are simpler, less energetic and the production is also less enthralling. With all IMMORTAL has been through its amazing that any band member has kept this project for so long but i guess when your brand name has such universal recognition it’s hard to put a cash cow to rest. All in all, WAR AGAINST ALL is a decent album that features more softer moments than its predecessor. Sure there is absolutely nothing new under the sun. IMMORTAL fans will want to have this as it’s a worthy addition to the canon but ultimately it’s one of the weakest albums from the band in a long time. The immortality may be running thin.

adg211288 When Norwegian black metal act Immortal first disbanded back in 2003 after seven studio albums, they left behind a pretty great legacy, ending on career high note Sons of Northern Darkness (2002). Their later reunion in 2006 resulted in a solid if not exceptional comeback album, All Shall Fall (2009), but then the band went another long stretch without a new album. Then, in 2015, something unthinkable happened: the band's two key members, Abbath and Demonaz (who hadn't been able to play with them since 1997 due to severe tendinitis, which was surgically corrected in 2013), had some sort of bust up. This resulted in Abbath going off to start his self-titled project, which released its debut album in 2016, and Demonaz officially restarted Immortal again in 2015, consisting of just him and drummer Horgh. Demonaz returns to his original instrument, guitar, and also takes over the lead vocalist role from Abbath, with bass handled by guest musicians Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy).

Now I for one was pretty sceptical about this whole thing, I admit it. Demonaz had previous laid down lead vocals in his self-titled project back in 2011 and didn't give the kind of performance that I personally felt would have fit in with Immortal's more aggressive form of black metal music. That's not to say that they were bad, just different, especially considering that Abbath has one of the most distinctive growling voices in the scene and has always been an aspect of Immortal's music that has set them apart from other black metal acts. Sure enough, on Northern Chaos Gods (2018), Immortal's ninth album and first and only without Abbath, Demonaz doesn't deliver anywhere near as distinctive sounding growls as the former frontman. They also fit in here much better than those on Demonaz's March of the Norse (2011) led me to expect they would. Combined with some really furious black metal riffing, Immortal's Abbath-less comeback may just be the most aggressive album they've ever released.

That's the good part. There's also a problem. And that's that with Abbath or without him, lyricist Demonaz has long written extensively about his own Blashyrkh theme and now that we're nine Immortal albums deep, he's starting to really show signs of scraping the barrel. Throughout Northern Chaos Gods and it's eight tracks, you'll continually hear phrases that have been heard before across Immortal records and even though the music itself provides an absolute beast of an album, it does feel just that bit stale now because of the lyrics. Even the title is taken directly from Immortal's popular track One by One, the opener from Sons of Northern Darkness while closer Mighty Ravendark was actually used before as part of Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark) on their third album Battles in the North (1995). Furthermore, there's also Gates to Blashyrkh on this album. It all feels a bit of 'been there, done that'.

In spite of that issue, it's clear that Northern Chaos Gods is a far superior album to Abbath's 2016 self-titled effort, so if nothing else, Demonaz most certainly wins round one of their post-collaboration careers. Immortal just needs a bit more originally in their lyrics in the future though, as for the first for me they prove a distraction when listening to their music, summoning memories of past glories with Abbath up front rather than allowing me to fully invest in this Demonaz fronted new incarnation of the legendary band, without otherwise does a damn fine job of proving itself a viable venture for Demonaz and Horgh. For the music alone, Northern Chaos Gods is still worth a respectable four stars though.

siLLy puPPy IMMORTAL was one of the early pioneers of the second wave of black metal that found the brutal gut wrenching fledgling subgenre spawning from the deathened thrash leanings of the early bird evil ones such as Venom, Bathory, Mercyful Fate and Hellhammer. After all this time though, bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth who launched Norway onto the world’s stage as the most aggressively fearful bands that the music world has ever been subjected to, have pretty much strayed from their roots of the early black metal orthodoxies and either disbanded in search of other musical endeavors (such as Ihsahn spawning a solo career out of Emperor) or have completely jumped into the world of the avant-garde or experimental alternate realities. While a few bands of that era such as Gorgoroth and Sweden’s Marduk have kept a relatively pure form of second wave black metal as their primary focus, none have done it so gracefully and elegantly as Bergen’s IMMORTAL.

As is well known in this sector of the extreme metal universe, all has not been well between founders Abbath and Demonaz who were founders of this darkened nightmare inducing dinfest and parted ways in 2003 after the release of “Sons Of Darkness” but found common grounds long enough to pump out yet one more release in the form of 2007’s “All Shall Fall.” Despite trying to bite the bullet and get along for the sake of the music, the collaborative efforts of Abbath and Demonaz hit a low point and resulted in the ugly legal battles as to who owned the coveted trademark band name. After years of “legalistic battles in the north”, Abbath finally jumped ship permanently and embarked in his own self-penned career move whereas Demonaz continued the legacy of the original band moniker. After nine years of fans’ nail biting and dismay, a new IMMORTAL album has finally hit the market. The band’s ninth studio album NORTHERN CHAOS GODS not only continues their love of a certain direction of geography (uh, “Battles In The North,” “Sons Of Northern Darkness” and this one) but shows a newly energized IMMORTAL on top of their game. Did you really think they went away forever? What exactly does their name mean anyway?!!!

Demonaz stated that this album was to be as grim, dark and cold as possible and that wish has been granted in full black metal grimy regalia. Right from the very first bombastic blast of the opening title track, NORTHERN CHAOS GODS evokes the pure essence of a 90s black metal band catapulted into the modern era. By retaining a sense of the lo-fi bombastic melding of guitar, bass and drums with that classic “shrieking from the depths” vocal outrage, IMMORTAL emerges from the underworld of uncertainty and back into the Earthly plane of existence to reclaim their throne as the most enduring and authentic examples of classic second wave Norwegian black metal. With recognizable and almost downright familiar compositional bombast that evokes their earliest post-death metal years with classics such as “Pure Holocaust” coming to mind, Demonaz unleashes a ferocious fury of guitar riffing, deranged hellfire vocal torture alongside Horgh’s percussive orotundity and the bass bombast of newbie Peter Tägtgren who has played with many extreme metal bands including Hypocrisy, PAIN, Exodus, Therion, Sabaton and Edge Of Sanity, JUST to name a few. He also serves on this one at the helm of the production and mixing room.

I honestly can’t say that IMMORTAL has been anything but consistent. While many claim one album or another is superior to the next, i personally find them all to be compelling and NORTHERN CHAOS GODS, while not deviating significantly from their standard formula of head banging earache inducing black metal from the 90s, still fucking crushes the soul like a ton of bricks. On this release, Demonaz, Horgh and Tägtgren deliver a collection of eight of the most crushingly heavy tracks that the band has unleashed on an unsuspecting world in a long, long time. I, for one, never expected to experience such a fine and quality laden product as this one. This is indeed classic no nonsense black metal that eschews all the frills. No atmospheric touches, no ventures into avant-garde weirdness, no Satanic gimmicks, no none of that.

In fact, this album seems like the perfect recalibration to a more simple return to the roots of the black metal early years. Much like the grunge did to glam metal of the 90s. This is a balls to the wall return to the basics that emphasizes what made second wave black metal so utterly addictive in the first place. With a production that is perfectly balanced between lo-fi middle fingers raised and modern stereophonic bliss dowsed in pyroclastic musical outbursts of black metal fury, NORTHERN CHAOS GODS not only unleashes the frigid wintery ice cold temperatures translated into sonic form but proves that IMMORTAL are the current CHAOS GODS that are living up to their name and are here for eternity. A surprisingly consistent and fiery comeback from one of Norway’s most enduring and constantly kickass black metal bands. Will they return you may wonder? What is their name? Tell me now, WHAT…. IS ….. THEIR…. NAME? I just hope it’s not another nine years.