Immortal - Battles in the North (1995, Osmose Productions)

Track list:

1. Battles in the North

2. Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms

3. Descent into Eminent Silence

4. Throned by Blackstorms

5. Moonrise Fields of Sorrow

6. Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons

7. At the Stormy Gates of Mist

8. Through the Halls of Eternity

9. Circling Above in Time Before Time

10. Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)

I'll preface this review by saying that Battles In The North is probably my favourite album of all time, so apologies in advance for any excessive hyperbole. As far as I can tell, most people would insist that Immortal's best effort is 1993's Pure Holocaust, and while I'll admit that particular album is indeed a classic of early Norwegian black metal, Battles has always had the edge for me. I'm not entirely sure exactly what it is about this album, it just has some strange unquantifiable quality to it that I've never found replicated anywhere else. It simultaneously a quintessential black metal record, and a weird oddity that no other album can imitate, although I suppose it's possible to say that Battles In The North broadly sounds like a halfway point between its predecessor and the subsequent Blizzard Beasts record.

If I were to sum up Battles In The North in one word, it would be "chaotic". I maintain that the speed and riff-ery contained within this album sit at the most ridiculous levels Immortal ever reached, which is certainly saying something for a band famous for their insanely frenzied instrumentation, not to mention actually losing a band member to acute tendonitis thanks to too much hyperspeed tremolo picking (or maybe it was just poor technique - don't ruin the illusion). To use some classic black metal clichés, the whole album basically sounds like a relentless blizzard raging in the most grim and frostbitten mighty peaks and pagan moonforests Norway has to offer.

As with the previous album, the line-up of Battles In The North features only Abbath and Demonaz. Still in-between drummers, Abbath picks up the slack and handles vocals, bass and drums, leaving Demonaz to concentrate on guitars. I think it's fair to say that Abbath isn't the best drummer ever, and at times it sounds like he's really struggling to keep up with the relentless fury of this album. Indeed, many people's main complaint with Battles is that the drumming is way too sloppy, and in a way, they're right. However, in some bizarre way I think the sub-par drum performance is actually a large part of the essence of the album and helps give it its trademark feel. It's like there's a constant battle going on between the drums and the raging wall of guitar noise that's always on the verge of swallowing up Abbath's blasting completely in a hail of ice and fog.

Vocally, Abbath is on top form and at his most reptilian sounding, without too many of the Popeye-esque overtones present on albums like Damned In Black. It's certainly my favourite performance of his from any of the band's catalogue. Predictably for a mid-'90s black metal record the bass is pretty buried, although there is somewhat of an audible rumble present which follows the guitars for the most part. The production job on the whole is quite thin sounding, but not in a weak way. It serves every instrument (sans bass) well though, and the squall of guitar is truly colossal. Allegedly this album was originally released with a piss-poor production job before being hastily recalled and remixed into the form everyone knows, although I've never actually managed to find a sample of this original version nor anybody who's actually heard it in person.

The album as a whole is so frantic that for the first few listens it's pretty difficult to tell many of the tracks apart; the only real breaks coming in the form of a couple of clean interludes at the start of "Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons" and halfway through the closer "Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)". That said, repeated listens really open things up and there are a lot of really fantastic, memorable riffs in here despite the speed at which everything is delivered. Highlights for me are the title track; "Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms" and "Circling Above in Time Before Time". That said it's an album that really needs to be listened to as a whole, which is hardly much of a task considering its quality and meagre 35 minute running time.

All in all, an absolutely essential Norwegian black metal release.