ALBUM REVIEW: Immortal, "Northen Chaos Gods"

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type:Full Length

Date Released:6/7/2018

Label:Nuclear Blast

Fans of each era of Immortal will find something that speaks directly to them, and as a beginning for a new era in Immortal’s career, it’s an obviously strong one.

‘Northern Chaos Gods’ CD//CS//LP//DD track listing:

1. Northern Chaos Gods

2. Into Battle Ride

3. Gates to Blashyrkh

4. Grim and Dark

5. Called to Ice

6. Where Mountains Rise

7. Blacker of Worlds

8. Mighty Ravendark

The Review:

The story surrounding ‘Northern Chaos Gods’, Immortal’s first new album in nearly nine years, is all about what transpired during their long hiatus, and the absence of their longtime and charismatic front man Abbath. It’s a difficult thing, trying to move out from under the shadow of someone whose personality and voice were so intrinsically linked with the band’s very existence. On social media, the announcement of this album was plagued by comments from long time fans deriding the very thought of Immortal continuing without Abbath. It felt like an impossibility to them, like trying to imagine Motörhead without Lemmy.

Heavy metal history is brimming with stories of bands trying to continue on without legendary vocalists: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and so on. And we know that those stories rarely end with the band continuing to succeed at a similar level once that change is made. But there are exceptions to that rule. The most prominent example of this, at least from an extreme metal perspective, is probably Cannibal Corpse. Corpsegrinder has proven to be a more dynamic vocalist and an equally, if not more engaging live performer. It’s hard to find the basis for an argument that the band’s popularity has suffered without Chris Barnes, as you won’t find any evidence supporting that idea based on comparing sales for last year’s Six Feet Under and Cannibal Corpsealbums.

Making predictions for something like this is never easy, but the Cannibal Corpse analogy may hold water still, even though they and Immortal represent different subgenres. Cannibal Corpse’s first post-Barnes album was ‘Vile’ in 1996, an album that was met with mixed reviews from fans. And while it’s pretty likely that ‘Northern Chaos Gods’will fare somewhat better in its reception, there are some issues with the album that deserve consideration.

The main concern I have with ‘Northern Chaos Gods’ is what I’ll call “going to the same well too many times” with certain compositional choices. In specific, it’s using very similar-sounding triplet-based clean guitar parts in several songs throughout the album. They first appear early on in the song “Gates of Blashyrkh” and show up again and again as the album goes on. Directly related to this is Demonaz’ continued love affair with viking-era Bathory, which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. But the way that slower, epic sound manifests itself here causes the album to lag somewhat as we get late into the album. By the time “Mighty Ravendark” ends, we’ll have heard the “clean triplet guitar interlude into epic Bathory” device in three separate songs. For those who remember Demonaz’ solo album ‘March of The Norse’, you’ll remember that nearly every song on that album featured the same central rhythm. The man gets a specific musical idea in his mind and isn’t afraid to invest huge chunks of an album to that one idea, exploring it from every possible angle over an album’s duration. The repetition isn’t as difficult to sit through here, but it definitely warrants discussion.

Where ‘Northern Chaos Gods’ shines brightest is when it’s going full speed ahead. The lead single and title track was absolutely the right choice to showcase up front, with its callbacks to the pitch black frenetic energy of ‘Battles in the North’. ‘Into Battle Ride’ is another blast fest, sticking out in particular because it’s the only song on the album in which large sections of it are in straightforward 4/4 time, with the triplet rhythms waiting nearly a full minute before coming into play. “Grim And Dark” is a great combination of the two central styles of the album, with blast beats giving those giant chord progressions some extra energy via Horgh’s blistering speed.

‘Northern Chaos Gods’ is largely a great album. I’ve spent a large section of this review pointing out the album’s faults and hammering Demonaz for dwelling on a certain compositional style, and that’s because I think that’s a valid criticism of what he’s shown us as a composer between his solo album and now this album. But even keeping that criticism in mind, this is still a better album than Abbath’s solo album, which hasn’t held up especially well as time has gone by. Abbath’s album definitely holds the advantage in variety, but ‘Northern Chaos Gods’ is better as a fully realized listening experience. Fans of each era of Immortalwill find something that speaks directly to them, and as a beginning for a new era in Immortal’s career, it’s an obviously strong one.

“Northern Chaos Gods” is available digitally here and on CD/CS/LP here. 

Band info: Facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Necrophobic, "Mark of the Necrogram"

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type:Full Length

Date Released:23/02/2018

Label:Century Media Records

‘Mark of the Necrogram’ is as great as any album Necrophobic has ever released. The band is beaming with new creative life; driven by excellent performances all around and a vocalist that fits his band even better the second time around.

‘Mark of the Necrogram’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Mark of the Necrogram

2. Odium Caecum

3. Tsar Bomba

4. Lamashtu

5. Sacrosanct

6. Pesta

7. Requiem for a Dying Sun

8. Crown of Horns

9. From the Great Above to the Great Below

10. Undergången

The Review:

Some twenty-five years after the release of their debut album, Necrophobic aren’t just still alive and kicking, they’re releasing some of the best music of their career. The band hasn’t ever released anything that wasn’t at least good, and often times they’ve been great. That makes for a rare level of consistency for any band, regardless of genre. That’s not to say the band themselves haven’t had their ups and downs over the years.

The band’s longtime vocalist and early bassist Tobias Sidegård was rightly fired from the band following his conviction for domestic abuse in 2013. ‘Mark of the Necrogram’ is the band’s first full length album without Sidegård, and interestingly, the band has opted to bring back Anders Strokirk, who was the vocalist on the band’s debut album, ‘The Nocturnal Silence’. It’s especially interesting since this doesn’t seem to indicate a return to their early, pure death metal roots.

In fact, the band are largely continuing in the same mixed black and death metal direction they’ve been travelling for more than 20 years. ‘Mark of the Necrogram’ continues in the similar vein to 2013’s ‘Womb of Lilithu’, however the songs on this album are much better written and arranged. That probably owes to a heavier reliance on melody, though they balance the scales between that melody and darker material superbly. Strokirk’s work in Blackshinehad seen him using a much more commercial, quasi-melodic vocal style, but he has pivoted back into extreme vocals exceedingly well.

Perhaps best exemplifying that aforementioned balance between melody and darkness is “Requiem for a Dying Sun”, which may be Necrophobicmost anthemic song ever. Its deliberate, stomping tempo and hook-crazy guitar work make it an early candidate to be one of the year’s best extreme metal songs. The song, by all rights, should be for Necrophobicwhat “Tyrants” was for Immortal. It’s so good that I’m sort of baffled that it wasn’t chosen as the advance single for the album.

What it boils down to is this: when a band has a long, high-caliber career like Necrophobicdoes, opinions on where albums rank are going to vary quite a bit. I know people that are huge proponents of several different albums in the band’s discography. It’s also very difficult to overcome the reverence that nostalgia lends those first two albums. It’s with that in mind that I would say ‘Mark of the Necrogram’ is as great as any album Necrophobic has ever released. At the very least, it’s their best since “Darkside”. The band is beaming with new creative life; driven by excellent performances all around and a vocalist that fits his band even better the second time around. Get this immediately.

‘Mark of the Necrogram’ is available here

Band info: Official ||Facebook

ALBUM PREMIERE: Toronto's Deity deliver chaotic, aggressive and masterful self titled debut album

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines Deity as ‘Godhead; the Supreme Being; a fabulous god or goddess; a divinity.’  That definition needs to be amended to include DEITY the band; who melds old-school metal through a thoroughly unique intense influence of their own into music that is godlike and divine! 
 

Inspired by Suffocation, Emperor, Death, Slayer and Immortaland describing their music as ‘relentless, powerful, intriguing, honest and revitalizing’, DEITY has produced a truly special album, combining the fantastic progressive instrumentals of Metallica and Iced Earth with crushing metal anthems.
 

With the completion of DEITY's self-titled album, the extreme duo, Danny and John are looking forward to taking their sound to live stages in Toronto, Montreal and more in both those cities provinces and beyond. Watch this pair, because DEITY are a band that deserve to break out of the studio into the live arena! Guitarist/vocalist Danny Alessandro had the following to say about the album

“This album has been a long time in the making and we are very proud of what we've created. From start to finish we want to take the listener on a journey of different emotions and feeling. As fans of metal we wanted to create something the listener could play over several times without losing interest. Something with a timeless feeling, and we feel like we've achieved this. Chaotic, aggressive and melodic are the best words to describe this self titled release.  We hope the metal community digs the album cheers!!!”

With the album set to hit the streets on Friday 2^nd June, you can check out the album in all its brutal splendour below.  For more info about this release as it becomes available, like and follow DEITY via facebook below.

Band info: Facebook || Instagram