Immortal : Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism

The debut album from the Norweigan black metal group that is known for blazing guitars with pretty technical riffing. Being formed by members of Old Funeral, Abbath and Demonaz have started a band that would break many boundaries in black metal by including Demonaz's great guitar riffs with Abbath's great vocals to become one the most popular Norweigan black metal bands in the genre today.

Seeing that this is the debut album, you will find that this album isn't exactly as fast as the future albums are. Since black metal was still very simple in form when this album was recorded, there isn't the complexity and speed that the rest of the Immortal albums are known to have had. Everything besides that is found in this album, mind you, but alot of the reason Immortal is so popular is because of their "extreme" sound and speed. This is a great history lesson for the band and interesting to hear the links to the future recordings, but overall, there really isn't anything to get excited over here. Abbath's vocals hadn't trademarked themselves yet and his vocals sound like many other black metal bands that recorded albums during this time period. (Darkthrone,etc.) Demonaz shows some good solos in songs, like "Cryptic Winter Storms", but again, still lacks the speed and sound that most Immortal fans are accoustomed to. Recommended if you liked the black metal scene during this time period, or if you want to hear the roots of the band.

                                                Overall score:  55/100
Reviewed by Brian