IMMORTAL’S ALL SHALL FALL: A FINE COMEBACK, CORPSEPAINT ASIDE
Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 2:00pm by Sammy O'Hagar
No other black metal band better typifies the genre’s silliness than Immortal. While most of their True Norwegian ilk left their corpsepaint at home almost a decade ago, the band have stuck to their guns (and battle axes), not letting a silly thing like aging stop them from posing for promo photos and playing shows shirtless and done up like a Hungarian KISS knockoff. And while Darkthrone cornered the market on the angry-banshee/bad-production black metal market, Immortal laid claim to the running-around-the-forest-ominously brand. Though I understand the significance of black metal’s silly image (well, at least I like to think I do), I’ve always thought of it as a shame that Immortal have allowed themselves to be so governed by their absurd appearance when their music, for the most part, has been so fucking righteous. Though they’ve fumbled through some of black metal’s typical snags– vague anti-Semitism (the title of Pure Holocaust), riff salad with a side of murky production (Blizzard Beasts), and not to mention having the majority of their lyrical content be based on a mythical land called Blashyrkh– they’ve also contributed some of the most solid, riff-heavy material the genre has produced. And even despite a seven year absence between 2002’s Sons of Northern Darkness and now, the band are still top notch, schooling both their tired peers and frostbitten newbies with their massive, excellent new album All Shall Fall. Though one would be silly to deride you for thinking the band is ridiculous– the unintentionally homoerotic covers of Battles in the North and the aforementioned Blizzard Beasts were most likely made by dudes unaware of camp or kitsch– one would also be remiss not to point out that you’re missing some of the best stuff black metal has to offer.
Though All Shall Fall lyrically takes place in Blashyrkh and features Abbath Doom Occulta’s trademark raspy grumble, it also employs the meaty, triumphant riffcraft that the band have relied upon since 1999’s classic At the Heart of Winter. Once one gets past the band’s general ridiculousness, they’re likely to discover an epic, enormous metal album that stands shoulder to shoulder with Immortal’s– or any black metal band’s– revered back catalog. From the blast-driven title track to the galloping steed gigantism of “Arctic Swarm” and “Mount North” to the epic trod of closer “Unearthly Kingdom,” All Shall Fall is excellent metal that just happens to feature some of black metal defining qualities. Though it doesn’t have the sort of surprising emotional depth of Sons of Northern Darkness’ “Beyond the North Waves”, the album sounds like it picks up where that one left off, despite the close-to-a-decade gap between the two. If anything, it’s great to see that a band so seemingly gimmicky came back not for the Open Air Festival money, but because they had more of substantial value to say. If you like your metal gargantuan and confident, there will be a lot for you to enjoy on All Shall Fall.
The one debatable weak point of the album is its massive, slick production. While truer-than-thou purists will balk (as they most likely have been for the better part of a decade) at All Shall Fall’s sheen, even those that don’t think black metal has to be made on a four track in your grandparents’ basement may find the album a little too polished. The battle sound effects on “Hordes of War” or (especially) the flanger-heavy acoustic intro to “Norden on Fire” will leave many cringing. But, for the most part, the album’s epic production plays to the band’s sense of grandiosity; a rawer approach would have obscured their panoramic ambitions. While most black metal is internalized and deeply personal by nature, it also has the potential to be as big as power metal or as ballsy as death metal. Despite being the poster boys of the genre’s inherent absurdity, Immortal have usually been the band to prove that black metal can be as heavy as any other niche. All Shall Fall, just as much as any of the band’s other albums, is yet another exhibition of their prowess. In an age of irony, Immortal are having none of it. Though the image of the band running shirtless through the forest with antiquated weaponry is a hard one to get out of your head, this writer highly recommends you do so.
(4 out of 5 horns)
-SO
The AC/DC of black metal
And the cover looks like a black metal version of New Junk Aesthetic.
I love the production on this album. I can’t even listen to most black metal because of the intentionally shitty sound. This disc is pure grim & frostbitten blackenedness, yet production-wise, it holds its own with Judas Priest or Manowar, and to me that’s awesome. It proves that Immortal aren’t interested in hiding out in some little subgenre ghetto – they want to be embraced by all metal fans, without changing the essential nature of what they do. That’s something to be admired. This album is probably gonna wind up on my year-end Top Ten list. Top Twenty for sure.
Part of the charm of certain black metal is the shitty production, for example…Blizzard Beasts sounds so shitty but It’s so great I don’t think I would like it as much if it had better production.
Call me a snobby dick, but fuck charm. I want to hear what is going on in a song. What’s the point of writing a riff, or playing a fill, if it’s completely inaudible?
I may not be tr00 or kvlt, but I get turned off by so much Black Metal that I’d probably love, simply because the album sounds like it was recorded inside a tin can.
Am I alone on this?
Yes, you are. The purpose of black metal isn’t to show of musicianship, it’s to create an “atmosphere”.
The atmosphere inside a tin can?
There’s a genre for you, it’s called power metal.
If Power Metal is Pantera, Meshuggah and Decapitated… Then yes, that is the genre for me.
Damn right it is
the production on this album SUCKS. Peter Tagtgren is a HORRIBLE PRODUCER. Everything that comes out of Abysss studios sounds the same…garbage
Not all black metal bands have abandoned corsepaint. Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Taake, Dark Funeral & Marduk would be good examples.
I like all those bands. Lets not forget Sargeist, Urgehal, 1349, Watain and Naglfar.
Naglfar/Watain have sweet production and still remain kvlt. Everyone is a moron on both sides of this “argument”.
Yeah. Methinks Sammy is a bit misinformed.
Immortal never did anything for me, but Abbath’s side project I was so awesome. I hope they put out another album.
This crap sucks. What a bunch of sub-literate clowns. You guys make fun of Juggalos then recommend this garbage. Incoherence rules this place…
Fuck You. Choke on a bowl of dicks smothered in Faygo. Immortal owns all, and you’re not worthy of the sweat off of Horgh’s taint.
I dont really understand why some people dont get corpsepaint, it’s part of the scene and I reckon people should just embrace it.
Great album. I agree with above poster, I don’t have a problem with the corpsepaint, it IS part of the scene and the mythos that inspired it, but i DO think dudes should put their shirts on, looking a little meaty these days! :) But they are one of the black metal greats!!!
There is nothing grimmer than sportin’ a pasty muffin-top.
Meh… most black metal doesn’t do anything for me. I get the idea that it’s supposed to be all grim and dark and evil, but it generally seems ridiculous.
Oh well… to each, his own.
Immortal isn’t most black metal.
Immortal ARE somewhat aware of their goofiness. I read somewhere that they were really embarrassed about the now-infamous promo pics that graced the inside cover of At the Heart of Winter…apparently their inclusion was the result of a decision at the record label.
It’s not supposed to be recorded on a 4-track in your grandparents’ basement, it supposed to be recorded on a 4-track in an icy, wolf-haunted forest.
P.S. Stream this bitch, please.
I still have no idea whether or not to buy this album?
Yay or Nay if i should get it?
buy it!!!!
and the rest of their works as well!!!
I’d already have Pure HOlocaust, Blizzard Beasts and At The Heart Of Winter BUT no one sells it around my area! lol
Damned In Black, At The Heart of Winter, Sons of Northern Darkness and All Shall Fall are all amazing.
I don’t get how everybody judges this band on the way they look. Yeah, they look fuckin stupid, but they have some great music. If you stop and think about it, Kerry King looks dumb with his eight inch spike armbands, but no one cares cause that’s just the way Slayer is, and their music is fantastic. Same here. They look like dumbasses, but that’s just the way this genre is. You don’t have to look at their picture while you listen to them, fuck.
Referring to the album title “Pure Holocaust” as vaguely anti-Semitic is irresponsible and ridiculous. The word “holocaust” is defined as, “1. great or complete devastation or destruction, esp. by fire.” ; or, “2. a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.” Coincidentally, the word also existed before 1945. The album title could be described as anti-Semitic if, and only if, it were called “The Holocaust”, i.e. “3. (usually initial capital letter) the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually prec. by ‘the’).”. No where in the lyrics of the songs on “Pure Holocaust” is there mention of The Holocaust or the genocide of European Jews.
thats why its ‘vague’, champ.
it is not vague at all…it has NOTHING to do with the “The Holocaust” . It was an irresponsible association.
This review is too apologetic. Immortal has been making awesome music for as long as they have looked ridiculous, this is not anything new to the metal community unless you really have been living under a rock. If you haven’t let ‘At The Heart Of Winter’ or ‘Sons Of Northern Darkness’ be your proof that black metal can be awesome, then you’ve missed out on years of great music that speaks for itself no matter how stupid they look or cliche their lyrical content is. I have been recommending SOND and Emperor’s ‘Prometheus:The Discipline Of Fire And Demise’ to anybody who says they hate the tr00 kvlt black metal sound. The same can be said with Ulver’s ‘Bergtatt’ and Satyricon’s ‘Nemesis Divina’, they all have progressive elements and breathe life into what’s usually a shallow, repetitive and overall dead genre.
Of course, the new album fucking rules. You shouldn’t have to explain the concept of corpse paint and how its really ok this time for the record’s sake, unless youre talking to a bunch of noobs. Which, in retrospect, is probably true anyway.
Don’t forget Enslaved, they seem to mesh black metal with progressive elements beautifully
Grrrriiimmmmm
of course a fucking jew would complain about pure holocaust…yeah cos the word holocaust is used only when talking about a bunch of dead yids right?
I like Khold.
loved this album.fuck anyone who says shit about it coz you should not comment on what you can not understand.if black metal turns you people off then that is your fault folks…and ya you probably know nothing about metal then!!