Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

At The Heart Of Winter is an essential black metal record - if you can even call it that. I mean, this is Immortal, so it's obviously black metal, but I get so much more from this than the standard blackened metal vibes. The songs are huge and grandiose, almost with a "power" feel to them; a hidden, storming melody within the clusterfuck of blasts and gurgled grimness.

Drums drenched in reverb. Riffs cut across the sky like lightened cast from ice-dusted war-hammers; six battle hymns for the trve northern warriors. Tales of lands forgotten and treasures buried in time. These are the attributes that classic Immortal deal in; a swirling maelstrom of power-tinged black metal, if you can call it that (I will). Stand out tracks - "Solarfall", "Tragedy Blows At Horizon".

Blergh!

Mortiis - The Grudge (Single Edit)

 

I wasn't entirely fussed on Mortiis' much more metal approach in 2004 but there are some cracking tunes on The Grudge, including the title track, packaged here wittled down to a club-size bite. I can't blame Earache for wanting in on the electro-goth club scene audience that Mortiis so obviously appeals to, but the single edit is, in all honesty, fucking pointless. It takes a great song and makes it less great simply but cutting parts out of it. The Grudge as a song doesn't quite fall awkwardly into horrible chugging like some tracks off the album but simply showcases a rougher (and ALOT angrier) side to Mortiis whilst retaining the excellent synth and bass sound of earlier efforts.

On side B (or should I say AA) is "Decadent and Desperate", the big Mortiis single (in my opinion). Not quite sure why this is here if it was later repressed as a single (twice) in it's own right? Confusing move, Earache, I gotta be honest. "Decadent.." is muddy, riddled with angst only seen the ultra-bad part of nu-metal and is terribly mixed. It is far cry from anything off Smell of Rain. Mortiis is an excellent musician, not to mention performer, but this song is just hands down balls. Ironically, it was his best known song in the circles I hung around in at high school. People dug this song but shunned early Mortiis and even the album this was off! Moron fucking goths! Ha ha!

Burzum - Burzum

So I finally grew the fuck up and got this album. After years of holding out, hoping and praying for a shot at the original pressing from back in the day, I finally gave up on owning a piece of musical history. I can only justify so much for a record. It is, at the end of the day, historic or not, it's just a piece of vinyl. I don't like Burzum enough to justify spending hundreds on an original Deathlike Silence pressing. Back On Black's repress in a lovely gatefold that includes the follow-up EP Aske (which is just as pricey in its original form) will do nicely, methinks. I still paid over the odds for it thanks to Plastic Head but it is a fancy package so I'm not too unhappy with how much I paid.

I'm not sure if Burzum is the black metal record; but it definitely encompasses what the original scene was trying to achieve. For me, personally, at least. Every time I suggest this around metalheads I seem to face mostly disagreement, but if there is anything that will satisfy my "black metal urges" it is this record (or something by early Darkthrone). It was made at such a place and time that wholly impacts upon its structure, delivery and the entire finished product. If Burzum was recorded at any other point in time, or even with a different producer at the studio, or through a different guitar amp, it would not be the same record. That might sound a bit obvious, but it is more than that; what Burzum reflects is an idea, a vision so strongly held in belief by its creator that it eventually led to arson and later to murder. To know through these terrible acts that there was 100% belief and conviction in this music, in this way of life, makes the listening all the more powerful and dark.

Not that I personally advocate the burning of churches or stabbing your friend and record label boss in the face. And I don't sympathize with the views held by Burzum's bat-shit insane creator Varg Vikernes either. But, I am all about the music here, not politics, so if Varg's (possibly worrying) drive for Norwegian racial purity fuels him to continue creating such beautifully vicious and mood altering music, then so be it.

Immortal - Sons of Northern Darkness

One of the first black metal records I ever heard, and one of my favourites. I waited a very long time to get this on wax; eventually getting a copy on white when Back on Black were good enough to release represses. The original vinyl pressings on Nuclear Blast are worth a bit more, but that's ok, I'm not particularly wild or fanatical enough about black metal in the grand scheme of things, so I can let the original pressings slide and live with a repressed copy.

 

Immortal seem to have a suprisingly varied back catalogue with albums ranging from the downright 'necro' right through to highly produced riff fests, such as this. I gotta be honest, I think I prefer this Immortal to the 'vltra kvlt' Immortal sound. They are really talented metal musicians and the almost thrashy sound works well for them.

I'm not entirely sure if Immortal are serious or not, although I guess this lends to the whole 'atmosphere' surrounding them. Do they really, really think they are more metal than metal itself with all that gurning and waving about of spiked weaponry? Or is it all just an act and they always laugh at themselves? Who knows! I gotta say, I really wouldn't be suprised either way. Some crazy shit has come out of Norway in the last twenty years or so.

I didn't order the coloured version so I was mega happy when I ended up with a white copy, thank you HMV. The HMV store is generally very poor but if your in the UK you can get a limited supply of vinyl at generally very acceptable prices with the added bonus of free shipping thrown into the mix. Bonza value, mate! £9.99 for a double LP delivered to my house is pretty awesome.