IMMORTAL — War Against All (review)

IMMORTAL — War Against All album cover Album · 2023 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
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.
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