Immortal : Battles in the North

Slimmed down to a two man band, Immortal decides to record the follow-up to the great "Pure Holocaust" album. Abbath handles the drumming on this album, which makes these guys even more amazing in their instrumental skill. Two guys, one name and a new album. The equation is there, so lets see if it equals anything of value.

Before I get into the rest of this review, I must say that I have had my share of albums that have baraged me with music, but none did as much as this album. (the review begins here) The whole time, the Occulta brothers fly through songs before you know what hit you. (the album is 35 min long) Abbath's voice hasnt changed, Demonaz's guitar riffs seem to be even faster (Just listen to "Cursed Relms Of The Winterdemons"), and Abbath's drumming keeps up with Demonaz at an amazing rate, seeing that Abbath isn't a drummer at all. The production is better than "Pure Holocaust" with not as much of an echo on it, but you still get slammed by treble with very little bass in the mix. One humorous point of this album has got to be the brother's pictures on the album covers and in the album sleeves. They went to extremes to get pictures of them together, holding their demon axe guitars in freezing conditions on a frosty mountain peak. But looking around all the humorous imagery, the Occulta brothers have put together a pretty impressive display of extreme speed metal that will appeal to any Immortal fan and anyone that likes a good fast black metal album that pins you to the wall. My head still hurts from headbanging.      

                                                Overall score:  80/100
Reviewed by Brian