Immortal – At The Heart Of Winter (1999)

July 24, 2016

At The Heart Of Winter is an essential black metal record – if you can even call it that. I mean, this is Immortal, so it’s obviously black metal, but I get so much more from this than the standard blackened metal vibes. The songs are huge and grandiose, almost with a “power” feel to them; a hidden, storming melody within the clusterfuck of blasts and gurgled grimness.

Drums drenched in reverb. Riffs cut across the sky like lightened cast from ice-dusted war-hammers; six battle hymns for the trve northern warriors. Tales of lands forgotten and treasures buried in time. These are the attributes that classic Immortal deal in; a swirling maelstrom of power-tinged black metal, if you can call it that (I will). Stand out tracks – “Solarfall”, “Tragedy Blows At Horizon”.

Blergh!