Style: Primitive black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Raw black metal with a flare for the epic, foundational work
Thoughts: The first four immortal albums are among some of the finest black metal ever to be recorded. Diabolical Full Moon Mysticism however stands out among them. Not that it is better or worse than any of the others, but it shows a side of Immortal that would not be fully explored until much later in their career.
While all of the early albums have a distinct raw quality to them, its here on the debut that the band is shown to have just a tiny bit more than they would have in the next few albums. The songs are a bit more diverse, there is some acoustic work that the band would drop later on, and overall the music is much slower in pace than what we would eventually come to expect from Immortal.
The fact that was have a nine minute long song to close out the album should be evidence enough that this was something a bit different. Maybe it's Armagedda on drums and his different style that isn't wholly reliant on blast beats. Maybe its the band experimenting with different elements before streamlining their sound later. Maybe its all of these things, maybe its none.
Regardless, Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism is an excellent album. One that helped lay the foundations for Norwegian black metal and one that continues to get spun on a regular basis... perhaps even more-so than any of the other albums in this bands incredible discography.
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