Immortal – War Against All (2023)

March 7, 2024

War Against All is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but it does come across as a little uninspired. At this point it does feel like an Immortal album for the sake of being an Immortal album, which is a huge contrast to Northern Chaos Gods, which burst back onto the scene with a vital and renewed life force. Personally, I think War Against All would have worked better as a Demonaz solo album, but we’re really splitting hairs at this point, I guess.

Production-wise, everything is on-point, with a clear and well-balanced sound. Newcomers Ice Dale and Kvale do incredibly well, and whilst Demonaz’ songwriting and guitar playing is still borderline magnificant, the vocal efforts seem a little more strained than previously. I cannot expect the man to not change over time, but it was one of the first things that I noticed when the record started playing. Despite this however, War Against All should please most fans of cold, blasting black metal.

PS – is it just me, or does “Wargod” sound an awful lot like “Tyrants”?