Style: Raw black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Winters Away!
Thoughts: This is entry two into "how the hell have I not had this band on the blog yet??" Immortal is a legendary black metal band that I listen to with some frequency. How I have not written about then yet is beyond me. Regardless that stops now.
Blizzard Beasts was my first exposure to the band. I vividly remember going into my local CD shop and special ordering this and Enslaved's Eld at the same time. I had only just heard of black metal before this and wanted to see what the current album was like for two of the band's that kept coming up on online forums.
Before Blizzard Beasts I had not really heard what people would consider a typical black metal production. The intro was one thing- sounding something like the soundtrack to a horror movie - but when the title track came on I don't think I was quite prepared. The combination of technical riffs, blast beats, Abbath's croaking vocals, and muddy production was a bit too much for my young brain. I could tell that there was a lot going on in the music, but as to what those details were I couldn't make any of it out. It was too much, I turned it off and went back to Dark Tranquillity instead.
Obviously that's not the end of the story or we wouldn't be here. I went back to it some time later, a little bit more prepared for what was to come. I made it further than the title track and actually started getting pretty into the music for the first few tracks, then Mountains of Might came on and I was changed.
Immortal wasn't this mess of obscurity anymore, it was an epic beast ready for battle riding across frozen landscapes. This song was not like anything else on the album, it was unlike anything else I had heard within metal at that point. It contained epic clean guitar passages, complimentary keyboards to add in a cold wintery atmosphere, drums that were tactful and matched the music's cadence at every step. Even the production was cleaner than the other songs.. it was like a different band.
Now that I think about it, mountains of might may have been one of the key songs that got me into black metal as a whole. It was the antithesis of the rest of the album. Instead of blistering riffs that were impossible to follow, it contained distinct melodies. Instead of endless blast beats the song had a variety of drum beats that sounded a lot less like fuzz on the bottom end of the mix. Even the vocals were clearer and more forceful than the chaos that is the rest of the album.
Needless to say Mountains of Might was the gateway. If I could handle that song I could do the rest of this as well... and I did. Eventually the chaos began to open up. Instead of fuzz I heard distinct guitar notes and chords. Instead of an endless blizzard of riffs I heard intricate compositions that were rewarding to dig through and follow. Instead of endless blast beats I began to hear the true genius that is Horgh on drums and his nuances to the drumming in the album. It all came together.
Blizzard Beasts and Immortal as a whole were critical in my musical journey. Once this clicked it clicked for good. Now that I think about it this may have been the first album that I heard where my initial reaction was "I don't know if I like this or not." In the past all of my favorite albums have had that reaction, and Blizzard Beasts remains my favorite Immortal album to this day.
Written February 20th 2024
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