ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Immortal 'All Shall Fall' LP 2009, Nuclear Blast Records

Greetings readers and friends. The record of this week is a bit different from the herd of albums featured here in a given month or whatever. This is some over the top Norwegian Black Metal, and at that, they are the longest running band of the genre. From Bergen, Immortal has been putting out records since 1992 and they have maintained a similar sound this whole time. They aren't the kult sounding, lo-fi black metal that is often associated with the Norwegian sound, instead they are the loud, hugely produced opposite of that. They are fast and play the Norwegian Black Metal sound, thrash meets Viking sound, all with a death metal veil over it. Bathory and Celtic Frost being the original metal bands they play in homage to, the sonic power of this kind of Black Metal is bad as fuck and makes for wicked listening. Immortal is a big deal- unlike Mayhem and Emperor and all the murderous/suicidal stuff associated with True Norwegian Black Metal, this band has disassociated themselves from all that sensationalism and has instead focused on putting out a million ripping records. And many if not most of these records are about this fantasy land full of castles and warriors and shit called Blashyrkh, where Immortal chills at, or goes when they die or whatever. Sort of like Valhalla. Anyways on this new joint All Shall Fall, we finally get to pass through the gates of Blashyrkh and be in there so thats whats up. Some would say that this is dumb as shit and just all around retarded but you have got to hand it to these dudes though. They slay, and have slayed for a long ass time, and are still around after all these years doing the same thing they've always done. Corpsepainted, spiked gauntlets and all that shit, describing themselves as warriors. Even though this is weird they have 'kept it real' for a long time and that warrants respect. But the main thing I guess is that they slay, the records are dope. If you like this joint then check out the earlier albums such as Pure Holocaust (1993), Battles In the North (1995), and Damned In Black (2000) because all those records slay. Last week my young brother's friend saw Immortal on a magazine in my bathroom and came out talking about "man thats crazy that Kiss is still a band after all these years and shit." I said "yeah."