Immortal Norway

"The black metal giants Immortal strike back at the world bringing with them the minions of the grim and frostbitten kingdoms.

This is really a great album, I think. The title track is my favorite. It is melodic yet dark and oppressive, and the combination of a sweeping melodic almost rock-like riff and blasting drums works brilliantly. This is probably one of the best black metal songs I've ever heard. "The Rise of Darkness" is a more thrashy affair with elements from especially German thrash metal along the lines of Kreator - without being a clone at all - and there's a lot of great riffage in this track, and the blastbeat section that kicks in at around 3:37 works great in contrast with the rest of the track. "Hordes of War" is another thrashy in-yer-face track, and there are no black metal elements as such in it. "Norden on Fire" is more along the lies of the title track but less intense and with more focus on melody, which also applies to "Mounth North". "Arctic Swarm" also emphasizes melody and even contains some melodeath-like riffage (I guess I am among the people who miss acouple of blastbeats, because I think some blastbeats in this song would work magnificently). The epic closing track also has some melodeath elements as well as some really nice thrashy parts.

This album is recommended to fans of thrash metal, melodic death metal and black metal fans.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"