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IMMORTAL
Northern Chaos Gods

Nuclear Blast (2018)
Rating: 9/10

I remember a time when the Norwegian black metal scene was a truly perilous place to be. The fog of those times was cold and cackling as eruptions within the tundra gave life to a whole community of chaos. Then of course, just like our musical heroes, we age and at times feelings change and the buzz wanes.

For me the 90s black metal waves now seem like an eternity ago, but our appreciation remains, knowing full well that such bands involved had to evolve rather than stay put in such unhealthy sediment.

Immortal has evolved well, over a few decades now releasing solid albums even if it was the 90s which seemed to reward us most. But with ice titan Abbath announcing his departure in 2015 it was only natural that some would start to feel unsteady about the path that Immortal would take. Had the frosts subsided? Had the grim chunks of ice thawed?

Northern Chaos Gods was the only way that Demonaz and Horgh could surely dampen any doubts, and boy have they done it with this return to form. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals, that’s all this new album needed to be as Immortals’ sound has been stripped back to the basics for what is essentially a formidable heap of blackness that drives harder than a blizzard and scorches more than freezer burn.

For me, those late 90s At The Heart Of Winter streaks are present; the mid-paced nastiness that truly scolds in its despicable trudging and those gargantuan, epic gleams which enable the likes of ‘Where Mountains Rise’ to leer. It’s all here; those great walls of darkness constructed and dripping with arctic atmospherics as blazing segments overwhelm you like tundra flurries.

The opening title track is groove-based yet impenetrable – a torrent of hammering riffs and percussion. But the cohesion displayed on ‘Into Battle Ride’ between drum and guitar is just fascinating yet lethal to hear, the track unleashed like a frozen hellhound keen to thaw off in the dim sun.

For me, everything about the album rages; it’s Immortal after all as flickers toward 2002’s Sons Of Northern Darkness, but more so 1997’s Blizzard Beasts (the last record to feature Demonaz’s fiery guitar tone) seem frequent. However, what really strikes me as the main quality on this new outing is the fraught atmosphere, which is hardly a surprise really considering the soap opera antics of the last few years.

The end result though is a frantic, yet tight and tense affair, but all married with a catchy and epic vein. Check out ‘Mighty Ravendark’, the album’s longest track, which festers in icy fashion before finally succumbing to an avalanche of scowling that hints towards a Bathory sense of the grandiose. The massive trudging nature of this bestial track just freezes the spine; the stark, biting melody ripping through the icebergs like a black channel of threading evil as the wicked vocal streaks add extra venomous vim.

One certainly can’t contend Demonaz’s vocal performance, bringing a truly dismal and scornful performance to that already raging tide of black music where subtle tweaks bring strands of variety within that hideous barrier of noise.

Everything about Northern Chaos Gods feels colossal, defiant and intense, with Immortal harkening back to their murkier origins but still providing harsh blasts within it as the album rages on; a hailing crushing force based around the return of Demonaz as a blistering force that not many can reckon with.

Northern Chaos Gods is an extreme, unrelenting and ferocious outing boasting the arrogance and grandiose themes one would’ve expected from classic Immortal all those years ago.

Neil Arnold

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