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Immortal: Sons of northern darkness

24/03/09 || The Duff

I seem to have rediscovered this band just recently; having really warmed to contemporary black metal bands such as Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega, I thought I’d check out one of the first BM bands I was ever introduced to, some eight odd years ago now – this was the first album of theirs I bought after hearing the hypnotic, slow-paced BM anthem that is “Tyrants” – in short, this album still holds up remarkably well even after all this time, despite the ingrates who would try convincing you the band had sold out long before this album’s release. The way I see it, Immortal, much like fellow Norwegian black metal bands Emperor and Enslaved, have released some very inspirational albums, yet also had their not-so-great phases (only in releasing material that hasn’t matched up to prime, trend-setting efforts, and not so much to do with the quality of the material in question); despite the radical withdrawal from all things bone-chillingly grim, however, Immortal disbanded on arguably one of their finest albums.

As for the band’s classic era, I’m guessing most will agree that their ultimate masterpiece is “Pure Holocaust”, and an album like “Battles in the North”, although a great slab of furious black metal, didn’t quite revitalize the scene; “At the Heart of Winter” (the band’s fifth album), on the other hand, is an epic, deeply atmospheric black metal milestone that brought the band back into cult status, with drawn out frostiness, meaty riffing and yet a surprisingly sparse dose of keys and evil-ness – I wouldn’t say they sound much like Enslaved, but the band is more focused on rocking out than feasting upon your newborns, and therefore bare vague similarities with the prog/rock/Viking Norwegian masters. “Damned in Black” followed on with the same formula as its immediate predecessor, yet was tweaked like an over-sensitive nipple if only suffering from a dip in outstanding tunes – a great album, nonetheless, it was a trimmed down affair when compared to the possibly over-lengthy “At the Heart of Winter”. In 2001, the chubbiest black metal legion released the polished but still very necro/blizzard-subjected “Sons of Northern Darkness”.

One thing that always made these guys stand out for me, and maybe in the least positive of ways, is that they’re a very cheesy black metal band – the music is sterile, sure, hence why the music still enables the listener to envision bob cats fucking penguins to death atop an ice-cap, but I wouldn’t be far off stating Immortal sound like the BM version of Judas Priest. You got some powerful chug-riffs (Abbath sure likes his triplets), and some very ferocious black metal riffing, minor synth use, and of course the awesome drumming courtesy of legendary Horgh (or Barry Manilow, or whatever the fuck his real name is), but this isn’t music that will help you feel any grimmer when skulking through populated streets on a sunny Sunday afternoon, instead simply stuff to throw the horns to – I don’t think Immortal take themselves too seriously (no fucken way can those pics in the “In the Heart of Winter” booklet be of two people unaware of how stupid they look), and they put more importance in the power of the riff, the spirit of metal, side-lining to some degree atmosphere and in-depth, philosophical black metal lyrical content (these guys were likely having snowball fights in ancient battle remnants during English class, ‘cos they lack the skills to speak the language).

The production is crisp but arid, like dry ice crystals. “Sons of Northern Darkness” brings back the song-writing quality of “In the Heart of Winter”, but with the brevity of “Damned in Black” (not so much a short album, but more compact); every track is a winner, in my books, standouts being the first three – for a band to write something as majestic as “Tyrants” this far into its career is just one reason for which Immortal are so widely heralded as black metal forerunners – “Demonium”, and “In My Kingdom Cold” (but of course) and the closing track, which both bring back some of the epic, lengthy gravity previously experienced on the opening tracks of “Damned in Black” and all of “In the Heart of Winter”.

This effort presents some glorious black metal, and I’m almost disappointed that Immortal have reformed to work on new material, as their legacy came to one perfect closing with this, the band’s seventh effort. Of course, no Immortal album would be complete without a pic of the bandmembers’ respective ugly mugs on the cover, and on “Sons of Northern Darkness”, you got some awesome colour contrast (black n’ blue, moving on from the black n’ red from “Damned in Black”, the black n’ white from “Battles in the North”, the grey n’ black… have I run the gag too long?), and the stances of goddamned fucken metal warriors; far more frightening than the trolls on the cover of the last one – an awesome disc.

7 crimson skies of frostinecroblizzard grimness out of 10.

Information
Released: 2002
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: www.immortal.com
Band
Abbath: guitars, vocals
Iscariah: bass
Horgh: drums

Tracklist
01. One by one
02. Sons of Northern darkness
03. Tyrants
04. Demonium
05. Within the dark mind
06. In my kingdom cold
07. Antarctica
08. Beyond the Northern waves

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