I admit that I adore (almost) everything around the universe of Immortal. They never let me down in their big and impressive discography, not even in the project by Demonaz that gave us the awesome “March Of The Norse” or I by Abbath with “Between Two Worlds”. When I listened to this one, I thought at first that this was about to change but soon after I had a different opinion.
It’s been four years since Abbath left Immortal due to tension inside the band. The first album “Abbath” was released in 2016 and it was very good. Now, with a new and international line-up, his second full-length came to be. The Norwegian has with him his countryman Ole Andre Farstad in guitars, Mia Wallace from Italy on bass and Ukri Suvilehto from Finland behind the drum-kit.
For some reason, when I started listening to this album something felt wrong. Didn’t I play it loud enough? Did I have something else in my mind? I don’t know. But it didn’t take me long to realize that this is a very good release. The trademark sound hasn’t changed, so any of you that is a fan of this musician knows very well what to do if haven’t done it already.
Razor-sharp riffs, cold atmosphere and the characteristic vocals of Abbath compose another great black metal album that has his name on it. The only thing I didn’t like were some solos that seemed not to fit with the rest of the music. Top moments are “Harvest Pyre”, “Scythewinder” and “Hecate”. Or all of the rest as well. In the end, there is an awesome cover on “Pace ‘Till Death” from Bathory. Now, as for the informal feud between Immortal and Abbath, the winners are all of us with all the extra music we get.
