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Post by Lust del Carrion on May 31, 2006 20:22:52 GMT -5
"Over the last eleven years, Immortal have slowly - but not always quietly - established themselves as a leading act in Black Metal. With the recent passing of the last emperor, the Black Metal world is like a snake with no head, a writhing mass of coiled muscle wasting away under the weight of its own grimness. It's time for the true successor to step forward and seize the abdicated throne. And I promise you this, true believers, it won't be a gaggle of major label limeys in Halloween costumes sporting bad dye jobs and fake blood.
Immortal's conquest began in 1991. Abbath (ex-Old Funeral) and Demonaz (ex-Amputation) came together with the singular desire to create icy, uncompromising Black Metal. Their modus operandi was simple: spikes, corpsepaint and music caustic enough to sear the ears of their enemies. An undeniable love for Bathory, Venom and Slayer peppered their early work, as is evident on their debut release, "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism". Abbath handled bass in the old days with Demonaz on guitar. The drummer slot took on nearly Spinal Tap proportions as the throne had a constantly rotating roster including Armagedda, Grim (ex-Borknagar) and Hellhammer (Mayhem). At times Abbath himself even sat behind the kit, as on "Pure Holocaust" and "Battles In The North".
Despite being essentially a two-piece, Immortal created an indelible niche for themselves by writing frosty, fast and catchy songs laden with fantasy-tinged lyrics about a mystical, icy place known only as Blashyrkh. With Hellhammer on drums, the band embarked on their first big European tour with Morbid Angel in 1995. The tour only served to raise their status. After 1997's "Blizzard Beasts", which saw the addition of the titan known simply as Horgh, Demonaz experienced severe nerve damage in his hand that prevented him from further playing guitar. Abbath changed to guitar, and the band found a temporary bass player in Ares from Aeternus. Demonaz stayed active with the band writing all the lyrics and serving as the band's manager. In 1999, the band returned stronger than before and clearly established the definitive Immortal sound with "At The Heart Of Winter" and its follow-up "damned In Black". Rounded out by new bassist Iscariah, Immortal stood above the others, as the records received incredible press worldwide. U.S. audiences even got a small taste of the band live, as they did a week of dates with fellow Norwegians Satyricon.
"damned In Black" finished the band's deal with Osmose Productions. The band signed with Nuclear Blast Records for the world and will see proper distribution in the U.S. for the first time with their seventh release "Sons Of Northern Darkness". Once again recorded at Abyss Studios and produced by Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy), who also produced the last two, S.O.N.D. continues in the great Immortal tradition of thick riffs, pounding drums, grim-throated vocals and an undeniable hook of melody that ties it all together. And as the Black Metal throne now stands vacant, Immortal stake their claim with a prophecy-fulfilling lyric from "In My Kingdom Cold": "At the mountains of madness/Unending grimness this kingdom is mine."
On the 17th of July 2003 Immortal ceased to exist: "After 13 years and 7 albums we have decided to stop working with Immortal due to personal reasons. A great thanks to all our fans worldwide who helped us making Immortal superb through all this time." - Abbath, Demonaz and Horgh."
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Post by Butcher on Jun 10, 2006 14:40:08 GMT -5
For me, Immortal was one of the most hit-or-miss bands. They have great albums followed up by quite bad ones. Their classic is Pure Holocaust, which is in the top 3 BM albums ever, but after that, their only worthy album is At the Heart of Winter, which while dismissed by some as weak, actually bears many similarities in the riffs to Pure Holocaust.
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Post by Lust del Carrion on Jun 12, 2006 23:46:56 GMT -5
I love all of their albums. At the Heart of Winter, Pure Holocaust, Battles in the North, Sons of Northern Darkness. I love 'em.
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Post by Butcher on Jun 15, 2006 4:52:28 GMT -5
That's cool. I really love the song Mountains of Might off of Blizzard Beasts, and Beyond the North Waves from Sons of Northern Darkness is great too, but to me, their non PH and ATHOW albums aren't consistent enough to really get into, but thats just me of course.
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Post by Zombified Jeremy on Jun 16, 2006 10:16:31 GMT -5
The singer reminds me of King Diamond.
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Post by Lust del Carrion on Jun 16, 2006 21:53:08 GMT -5
Yea most black metal bands wear Corpse paint also.
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Post by Zombified Jeremy on Jun 17, 2006 12:08:37 GMT -5
The one time it is manly to wear makeup.
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Post by Lust del Carrion on Jun 17, 2006 21:37:38 GMT -5
lol...yea. Some don't though and bands like Satyricon that used to wear it don't anymore.
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Post by Zombified Jeremy on Jun 18, 2006 11:33:53 GMT -5
That is an awesome sig Infect!
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Post by Butcher on Jun 19, 2006 2:36:29 GMT -5
Forgot to mention Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism!!!! I always forget that one. Great album, but it's death metal, not black, and that's why I always forget about it I think.
BTW, my thoughts on corpsepaint are: Only King Diamond should ever wear it. He's the only one that doesn't look silly in it!!! I'll truly never understand how/why the corpsepaint became popular, or how it became a symbol of the "trueness" of a band either. Burzum never wore it, but it still didn't catch on with those guys that it was unnecessary... Seems that the paint days are coming to an end though, with very few of the old bands that are still around wearing it, and many newer ones not bothering either. Too bad it didn't happen before the whole genre was dead!!! I really think it may be something that's kinda lost in translation from Europe to the US or something. I know very few US metalheads who don't mock and despise the corpsepaint thing, even if they like some of the bands.
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Post by hotnoodletuna on Jun 20, 2006 18:26:15 GMT -5
Corpsepaint is completely lame. Emperor is prob my favorite BM band
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Post by Lust del Carrion on Jun 20, 2006 21:15:27 GMT -5
Yea Emperor is great. Immortal is really good too. They were very creative as they took a different approach to writing their music and not directly writing about satanism like everyone else and writing about their own world they created. A bit silly, but their music is awsome.
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Post by Butcher on Jul 3, 2006 3:27:44 GMT -5
"Norwegian weather report metal" hehe
This just in from our meteorologist Demonaz: "...it's cold."
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Post by Lust del Carrion on Jul 4, 2006 0:53:17 GMT -5
lol what is that from?
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Post by Zombified Jeremy on Jul 4, 2006 12:21:42 GMT -5
Good question.
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Post by Butcher on Jul 7, 2006 12:38:02 GMT -5
It's not "from" anything, man. I made it up, though I've heard people say stuff like that about them. I guess my using the quote marks made it seem like I took it from somewhere.
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Post by Zombified Jeremy on Jul 7, 2006 12:44:20 GMT -5
Seeing King Diamond doing the weather would be funny.
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Post by Lust del Carrion on Jul 7, 2006 13:07:30 GMT -5
lol
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