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 Corpse
albums.
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 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.
Band info: Facebook
