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Immortal - War Against All



7.5 | 229 votes |
Release date: 26 May 2023
Style: Black metal

Owners:

79 have it
23 want it


01. War Against All
02. Thunders Of Darkness
03. Wargod
04. No Sun
05. Return To Cold
06. Norlandihr
07. Immortal
08. Blashyrkh My Throne


Line-up
Harald Nævdal - guitars, vocals

Additional musicians:
Kevin Kvåle - drums
Arve Isdal - bass, additional guitars

Additional info
Released via Nuclear Blast Records

Produced by Arve Isdal at Earshot & Conclave Studios in Bergen, Norway.
Mastered by Iver Sandøy at Solslottet in Bergen, Norway.

Found in 28 lists
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Comments

Comments: 22   Visited by: 558 users
22.03.2023 - 20:37
Daniell
_爱情_
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23.03.2023 - 12:47
Rating: 9
darivo

Good Battles In The North times!
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26.05.2023 - 07:37
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
This is good better as latest 2 , good mix , seems Battles In The North Part II to me, enjoyable album. Should be reviewed on MS
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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26.05.2023 - 17:52
Rating: 9
Zariel

Don`t believe reviewers at AMG, this is not a disappointing release at all. Their expectations were unrealistic & they got pretty disappointed. Surely Immortal doesn`t bring something very fresh to the table but the `meal` they bring is nonetheless delicious. Why would you drastically change a formula which brought you success and risk a failure? One could also criticize Cannibal Corpse for (in a way) not evolving much throughout their career both musically and lyrically and for sticking to their sound but hell they are one of the biggest names of DM for a reason i guess. Change is not always for the better. This is another classic Immortal album & a must have for your collection!
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26.05.2023 - 21:02
Baz Anderson

I'm almost as big an Immortal fan as you get - but to me this album does expose the (now lack of) substance Abbath and Horgh brought to the band - it's just a bit flat and characterless without them. It's still a good album, but the biggest takeaway for me is the feeling of shame the band split how they did.
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27.05.2023 - 12:36
Rating: 7
Pavel_K

I think that it's a very enjoyable album overall, a few production choices notwithstanding.
However I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the amount of self-quotes I'm spotting here and there.
The main riff of 'Wargod' is actually 'Tyrants' all over again, the clean guitar that opens 'Blashyrkh My Throne' instantly reminded me of the clean break in 'Tragedies Blows at Horizon' (at least the grammar got better over the years), the verses in 'War Against All' and 'Nothern Chaos Gods' are very much alike... The list goes on.

Sticking to the winning formula is expected and reasonable, no matter if you're Demonaz or J.S. Bach, but where is the red line?
On the bright side, the instrumental track felt fresh, and the general vibe left me with a pleasant aftertaste.

To reiterate, I think it's a good record, but I wish it had more original compositional ideas, which seems feasible even without dramatically changing the recipe. I wholeheartedly agree with the comment above by Baz: joining forces with Abbath and Horgh could have made this better by orders of magnitude.
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27.05.2023 - 13:24
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
I wonder if Demonaz used ChatGPT to write this album
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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27.05.2023 - 17:31
ivulv

In agreement with RaduP. It's a win for ChatGPT for sure. Not so much for music history. The album sounds like the auditive equivalent of a meal devoid of both flavours and nutrients. In a word: boring.
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27.05.2023 - 19:36
Rating: 7
AndyMetalFreak
A Nice Guy
You kinda know what to expect from Immortal now, their usual signature riff melodies, furious blast beating, and their Northern wintry fantasy theme, which is used over and over again. This has all the last album had in terms of songwriting, theme and structure, except it has a slightly rougher and ferocious Battles Of The North sound. It's just as I expected, good and I like it, but nothing mind-blowing.

"No Sun" is the stand-out for me, just classic Immortal.
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27.05.2023 - 20:59
Rating: 7
Metren
Dreadrealm
I’m with Andy on this one. The title track is terribly dull, but I enjoyed the rest of the songs much more than I thought I would. I expected not to make it to the end, but I'm interested in giving it another spin or two instead. This album is a good example of a solid 6.5 or 7/10 black metal release. The cover art is quite gorgeous too.
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My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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29.05.2023 - 02:47
Rating: 7
pandrstudios

The riffs are good for the most part, but I can´t see this album as a worthy successor to Northern Chaos Gods. Everything seems very Immortal´esque but there are no tracks apart from "Return to Cold" that leave me satisfied.
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29.05.2023 - 12:58
Rating: 5
Zyk

I'm fine with Demonaz making Immortal his own but even so this is very derivative and a very poor follow-up to Northern Chaos Gods.

After hearing the early singles I lowered my expectations, but I went in wanting to like this anyway and was prepared to forgive its possible shortcomings as long as it did a few memorable things. It's disappointing that even after how far I was willing to go to enjoy it that it still didn't really give me anything that I would consider "new." I probably still like it more than what Abbath is doing but it's just so damn forgettable. The majority of the writing feels uncreative and underdeveloped.The sound mix certainly isn't doing it any favors either, it's too clean and sterile with the vocals up too high. That's not uncommon for Immortal but some simple adjustments could have gone a long way. Norlandihr is the best song here but if it's going to be instrumental and have guitar leads in place of raspy vocals then why are most of the leads so simple and uninteresting? Sadly it becomes about as bland as all the other songs.There are some good bits to the album here and there but all the overly rehashed writing and structures drag it down. I can appreciate that this is very reminiscent of Battles In The North but I guess I just wanted some edge to this dull blade, or rather a tiny bit of spice added to the cold grim soup. I think what really drove the point home for me was that I asked myself if Immortal were to start playing live again and they had their whole discography of songs to make a setlist with, would I want to hear any songs from this album? No.

If not for Blizzard Beasts I'd say this is the worst album Demonaz was a part of musically. Even his solo album was thoroughly better. Maybe this album will grow on me but I think I will actually find it less interesting over time. At least it's short. Like others have said, the lack of the other old band members is really felt on this one.
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30.05.2023 - 09:21
Daniell
_爱情_
Northern Chaos Gods was an 8.5, this one is barely a 6.5 maybe...

So now, instead of good Immortal we have bland Immortal and bland Abbath. Such a shame.
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04.06.2023 - 18:59
Rating: 9
sgtrobo

The instrumental is epic, the riffs are chunky, and it's aggressive and fun. Absolutely fantastic workout record.

I can't figure this out. I listen to it and I think it's surprisingly good. Everyone that seems to dislike it spends as much time talking about the band's breakup as anything. I wonder how much that 'bad taste' weighs on people who actually care about that.

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04.06.2023 - 23:33
Rating: 7
AndyMetalFreak
A Nice Guy
Written by sgtrobo on 04.06.2023 at 18:59

The instrumental is epic, the riffs are chunky, and it's aggressive and fun. Absolutely fantastic workout record.


I totally get that, I've been getting back into working out recently myself (need to get back in shape), and that instrumental has been a good choice. However, "Withstand The Fall Of Time" from At The heart Of Winter always creeps back into my playlist if I'm getting puffed out and need a boost.
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05.06.2023 - 17:41
Rating: 7
metalbrat

Nothing new here, no changes done to the regular formula but still it got bit soft and the predictable riffs reduced my enthusiasm after few repeats.
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In the beginning I was made of clay. Then I bit the apple and they changed me to metal 🤘
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06.06.2023 - 17:13
ivulv

I will admit I am one of the victims of their "war against all". Letting aside the ineption of taking a war on all (never a good idea), I tried to audit(ion) the arsenal of this army. It doesn't look good guys. Track 1 starts just as any album in their discography. This must be their war hymn. The 2nd is catchier, it's perhaps when they've made serious advances on the front. Everybody is "happy", well-fed, and -dressed, warm and cozy and just having a good time. 3rd is like any 3rd of their other albums, just worse. Here things go haywire and they feel the need to address the god of war. Not a bad idea, but as we shall see neither did this god like what he heard. In the 4th they find themselves already at the foot of the Mountain of Evil. It's already very shadowy, no sun shining anymore. The leader caught cold, his vocals are literally sick. I was hoping for the troopers to set camp and drink hot tea (blasphemy!). It must be an athmospherical ballad the one in the middle. I wasn't mistaken. The throat seems recover'd. The riffs are ov nursery caliber. The dudes are feeling at home in the Blashyrkh by now, their cold is nothing against the coldest backdrop. The whole 7' of the 6th track are to show how grateful they are for the suroundings, for comradeship and for war. The drummer agitates frying pans near the barracks, the rest joins in with the remaining kitchenwar'. The wargod listened to their ode and warms them up a bit to carry on ...with the war. Now they are hot, pitted against a backdrop of cold. A polar Bleah... bear could spot them from afar, just by the thermal signature and the noise they make. Well, I kinda felt cheated when the last track made it apparent these guys weren't in no war, that One was ""soon to begin". I swear bands like this one exist just to like Bathory even more.
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14.06.2023 - 00:53
Rating: 6
Nightmare^

- How much grimness and darkness and Blashyrkh can you produce?
- yes.

(seriously now, everytime it's fun for the first listen and then, meh, same old same old)
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15.06.2023 - 20:47
Rating: 6
sbgmetal

Oddly enough this reminds me of a combination of Immortal & his solo project Demonaz combined just not enough of either to make me feel satisfied, i did like that there was an instrumental though
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16.06.2023 - 01:13
A Real Mönkey

A pioneer in the genre of ai-generated black metal.
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"Change the world. My final message. Goodbye."

~Last words of Harambe, seconds before he was shot, according to child he shielded from gunfire
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16.06.2023 - 10:38
nikarg

Written by ivulv on 06.06.2023 at 17:13

I swear bands like this one exist just to like Bathory even more.

Yes, this definitely applies to what Immortal is today.

Your text (which I omitted from the quote to save space) would have made a great review.
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12.01.2024 - 09:20
Rating: 7
miekka18

It's goooood
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