Immortal - All Shall Fall review
| Band: | Immortal |
| Album: | All Shall Fall |
| Style: | Black metal |
| Release date: | September 25, 2009 |
| A review by: | Baz Anderson |
01. All Shall Fall
02. The Rise Of Darkness
03. Hordes To War
04. Norden On Fire
05. Arctic Swarm
06. Mount North
07. Unearthly Kingdom
Immortal have risen from the white ashes to reclaim their throne as kings of black metal. Not many bands have been as important to a genre of music than Immortal have been to black metal over the years. Now the band are back with their first album in seven years, All Shall Fall.
The album carries on exactly where Sons Of Northern Darkness finished. Stylistically All Shall Fall is extremely similar, the guitars are very melodic and as a whole the album stays at the same familiar pressing pace without going overboard. The frostbitten trio show no signs of cobwebs, but there is also no apparent attempt to create something truly spectacular. All Shall Fall, although a brilliant come-back album, is a bit too steady and safe to be hailed as one of the band's greatest works.
Seven years is an extremely long time and it is perhaps unrealistic to have expected anything to the standard of At The Heart Of Winter or any of the band's other classics. All Shall Fall almost seems like the band are just firing up the engine, and it is the future we have to wait for to experience Immortal at their most devastating. With this said, All Shall Fall is still a remarkably enjoyable album to listen to and is very much an album suited for the times.
The opening title track sounds like the soundtrack to a bleak and icy armageddon and "The Rise Of Darkness" follows bringing forth the rhythmic march of the northern tyrants. Melodic plodder "Norden On Fire" brings down the pace, but "Arctic Swarm" soon whips up another blizzard being the most forceful and unrelenting storm on the album.
Immortal have all eyes on them, and to avoid the risk of disappointment have released an extremely solid and safe album that may just underwhelm a few people. For the rest of us though, All Shall Fall is genuinely a glacier of frostbitten delights. Without a bad song on the album and a tidy running time, the album showcases the finest cuts of Immortal in this day and age, and it honestly hasn't felt so empowering to bang the head along to some serious top quality black metal in a long time.
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Black metal
Nuclear Blast
Norway
Length: 40:12
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Comments page 4 / 4
| RavenKing Posts: 1941  |
Written by The Turbanator on 04.05.2010 at 12:00 No it is not. And by a long shot.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by RavenKing on 31.07.2010 at 02:06 He said that 'for him' it is  I can't understand said comment either, but apparently that is his opinion.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Stigmatized .......... Posts: 3820  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 31.07.2010 at 15:55 Really?  I see you shoot down people's opinion in a lot worse ways than that on a nearly constant basis.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Stigmatized on 31.07.2010 at 16:03 I totally disagree with what Samsrit said. But he said that for him it is as good if not better than those other albums. Problem is you can't say "no it's not" in that case. I could say he is deaf of course
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 |
Of course it was in my opinion, Marcel. What I really think is "All Shall Fall" sounds only like a warm-up. Immortal can do much better than that. They can make better riffs and the lack of blasting drums is also a letdown. These things make the album sound too slow and soft compared to any other Immortal album. For me, it's as if they only half-tried to make a good album. The album suffers from a lack of originality and nothing stands out.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Grody2themax Posts: 240  |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 29.09.2009 at 00:40 Yea, pretty much everything has been done now. There isn't as much room for creativity, but I believe there's always going to be bands coming out that sound a little bit more stylistically different than the standard or average sound. There are many awesome guitar players now (as there were in the 80's of course as well) and I think they'll bring some creativity and bring a little bit of their own style into the genre.
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| Moosh666 Posts: 132  |
I find this album to be average, but that's because I had such high expectations for it. Sure, it is not Immortal's best, it seems merely a warm up to something big, but it is still a pretty good album. I would find it very hard not to give it a good listen every so often when I'm in a Black Metal mood, in fact I enjoy it more so than Battles In The North. Sure it's nowhere near as good as At The Heart Of Winter but it's still a good album, lay off them guys, they did good. - Moosh
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| M C Vice ex-polydactyl Posts: 3407  |
Is the talking bit in All Shall Fall done by Abbath?, 'cause in the video it looks like someone else and I'm not sure who. Could it be Demonaz?
---- "Another day, another Doug." "I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples." " 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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| SatyriconChick Posts: 248  |
Written by M C Vice on 29.08.2011 at 12:55 I believe It's Demonaz who did that spoken part, and yes, that's him in the video. 
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| M C Vice ex-polydactyl Posts: 3407 |
Written by SatyriconChick on 06.09.2011 at 02:21 Thanks.
---- "Another day, another Doug." "I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples." " 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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| Evil Chip Posts: 505  |
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| Night Sight Posts: 260  |
It is dark,epic,marvelous,beautiful and cold.it was great come back for immortal and now i think it coudn't be better than this.i like it more than sons of northern darkness.that is all i expected form immortal.after at the heart of winter it is their best album
---- Alone in birth Alone in the darkness Alone in death Alone in the daylight
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| akvan Posts: 186  |
Written by Night Sight on 23.09.2011 at 20:36 
---- Think about it . Every generation gets some new frontier to tackle . Einstein got relativity , The Nasa cowboys got the moon . All the easy stuff is taken , Artificial consciousness is the next frontier !
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| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687  |
Man you was able to put word "frostbitten" in this review more times than Immortal used it in this album  like the review ,like the album
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts" 
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| Timelord Posts: 276  |
Its always a divide and conquer scenario of its not black metal or it is just the same ole same ole. First of all who gives a shit what "genre" they are. IT is FUCKING METAL PERIOD!! If you are so hung up on the early 90's black metal sound then why bother going any further? Got all you need already. If you are a musician in the black metal genre or in any genre for that matter and you NEVER put any new ideas or creativity in your music then why are you doing it at all? Why not just re-name your first album,mix the tracks around with different titles on all the rest and BAM! there you go staying true to a stupid "genre" label just to shut up all the sissies that are so caught up with the black metal label. I been around since the very beginning. Got Venom: welcome to hell on vinyl in 1982,Mercyful Fate pre-Melissa,Bathory,Celtic Frost etc etc......The reason so many people like Immortal is because they didn't let themselves get backed into a corner. They did what most successful bands do and thats roll the dice and try new things. While there are a good many 'black metal" bands that you can't tell apart because it does get old staying at one pace. Immortal has managed to grow without losing the brutality. They are truly a great band(to me anyway)
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