Cash grab alert! After giving the classic board room “fuck you” to cornerstone musician Abbath, the corporate conglomerate of Demonaz and Horgh have secured the legal rights to the band name “Immortal” and are now positioned to promptly squeeze their fans to blindly buy music and merch advertised as that of a Norwegian black metal legend. Although the pair have only played together on one album out of 12, they’re billing this as “the comeback of Immortal!” and have already gotten the infamously money-hungry Nuclear Blast records to set up the most overused rock n’ roll ponzi scheme.
Together, the pair have released a new song “Northern Chaos Gods,” the title/intro track of their first foray into commercialized rehash. So how did the miraculous (fake?) recovery of Demonaz’s tendonitis work out? Exactly how far into the waters of retro-rehash did the band wonder? Have they evolved even the slightest as musicians or do they remain forever trapped in the 90’s? As trust fund life-dropouts living in the woods at the expense of their family might say:
“Let’s find out!”
Immediately, it’s clear that Immortal have committed complete necrophilia of their early material. Taking the approach Burzum used on their first two “comeback albums” in 2010 and 2011, the song – from start to finish – is a ripoff of their own back catalogue (particularly, the Pure Holocaust album). There are only a few riffs, almost all of the song is played at warp speed, and there isn’t much variety or thoughtfulness like what we’ve seen from the albums where Abbath was playing guitar. The vocals follow the same pattern/placement that Abbath would have used, but are slightly higher in pitch and float comfortably above the frog-like register of the past.
For some, this will be interesting as Horgh’s stellar drumming ads some additional depth to the compositions and the clear production adds a colorful clarity that was not found on the band’s earliest works. Many who disliked the classic heavy metal influences that surfaced in the age of At the Heart of Winter will find relief in this return to form of sorts. Low IQ metalheads looking for a mindless stream of “idiot metal” can rejoice at the frantic blizzard riffing that they’ll find here.
But as a band that’s brought innovation, creativity, excitement for many decades- this is a complete cop out and ultimately and utter cash grab. In the age of internet metal, we have thousands of bands playing in this style that can easily match this level of composition and production. Plus, we’ve all heard Pure Holocaust and Blizzard Beasts already and don’t need to hear what’s essentially a remake with different riffs. There is no meaning, purpose, or use for this shit existing except to make money for a couple of aging Norwegian fatasses.
The levels of retro-necrophila that Immortal have displayed on this release have never been seen in metal before (outside of this decades Von albums). Essentially it’s the metal Full House reboot- every nook and cranny of this piece hinges on the gimmicks of a time fargone. Just look at the fucking lyrics:
Fires and battles and blood
The immortal sons and the hordes of Blashyrkh
By the north
It’s as if the band just threw their old song titles in a computer algorithm that just randomly assorts words and phrases together and called them lyrics. They’re banking so hard off the retarded desperation of their fans to want to return to the 90’s that they’ve essentially rerecorded a hodge podge of riffs and lyrics from previous works. Sad!
History would better remember Demonaz as the man who’s hands broke too soon, but with this garbage piece of shit music he has thrown his legacy in the garbage in the desperate pursuit of more money. Hopefully, his tendentious will return so aggressively that he will never be able to pick up a pen and sign another record deal again. But until that day comes, we are likely to get more cash grab-rehash bastardizations as a band that was better off in the more capable hands of Abbath.
DO.NOT.WANT.
Tags: Black Metal, cash grab, commercial, immortal, metal, necrophilia, rehash
YO KOLLATERAL DAMAGE I KNOW YOU BE READING THIS. I CHALLENGE YOU TO A RAP BATTLE NIGGA! WEAK ASS NIGGA!
YO, WE BE GETTING DOWN RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. PUSSY ASS BITCH COMING AT A REAL GANGSTAR. WHAT? YOU THINK YOU CAN CLAIM DA CPT WHEN YOU LIVIN DOWN ON DA EAST SIDE, BROKE ASS NIGGA. FOO BLAP BLAP…….THEN ASK YOU SERIOUSLY, WHAT YOU GONNA DO?
This might be more gay than the whole Gorgoroth court-room battle a few years back. Ass-poundings and reach-arounds for all involved.
The guitar tone is fucking horrible. George Harrison’s guitar tone sounded less cardboard-boxy than this lmao
If this was another At the Heart of Winter clone, dmu would call it pop metal and would then spend a paragraph longing for the days of Battles in the North/Blizzard Beasts. Now that it seems like we’re getting a modernized take on Battles in the North/Blizzard Beasts, suddenly it’s “necrophilia” and a cashgrab. (A cashgrab? Did Blizzard Beasts suddenly sell a million copies when I wasn’t looking?) I’d advise non-tryhards to wait and see what the album’s like.
Of course it is a cash grab! They are mimicking a sound that has given them success but now they possess the necessary backing to make a small amount of money from it and to market it to those who never heard the Blizzard Beasts/Pure Holocaust. It is necessary to think and to use your brain before commenting.
This song is a massive improvement over anything on All Shall Fall. I want to believe..
Someone hasn’t been paying attention. Immortal’s lyrics are ALL like that. Demons, winter, mountains, winds, ice, etc.
I didn’t listen to the song — it might suck for other reasons. Complaining about lyrics in a goddamn IMMORTAL song is basically just stupid.
This sounds a bit rehash, but it’s rehash of material Immortal hasn’t really approached in years so it sounds ‘bold’ and like a return to form in Demonaz’ hands. I actually don’t mind it too much, but I think it suffers from a lack of direction and thus it doesn’t resemble black metal in heart or mind. To me it feels more like speed metal.
Also I wonder if when they attempt an ‘epic song’ it will resemble their cheesier moments of the past few years.
I like it. It’s definitely better than All Shall Fall or Abbath’s solo stuff.
I’ve listened to it a few times and it sounds good.