Battles in the North (Battles In The North - Immortal)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Battles In The North - Immortal
Date:	28/07/08 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Heavy and relentless, if that's your bag.

Disadvantages: Tediously repetitive and lacking in ideas.

Taking the relentless frosty sound of 'Pure Holocaust' to an undesirable extreme, Immortal's most poorly conceived album artwork belies a fittingly poor album. To its credit, the improved production quality does render the experience genuinely unsettling, creating the mood of being trapped in a fierce snowstorm from which you shall never return, but this doesn't exactly make for the most enjoyable listening experience, unless you're the sort of sadist that enjoys modern Behemoth.

The main problem I have with this album is that it sounds half-hearted and even unfinished in places, the ends of songs cutting off abruptly without a satisfying resolution and the drumming relying again and again on the same techniques of pummelling blast beats that get really irritating as early as the second track. This isn't a particularly brutal album by black metal standards, but it is loud and relentless, and is also Immortal's fastest, but fortunately they would learn to start writing actual music hereafter with the departure of Demonaz.

1. Battles in the North
2. Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms
3. Descent into Eminent Silence
4. Throned By Blackstorms
5. Moonrise Fields of Sorrow
6. Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons
7. At the Stormy Gates of Mist
8. Through the Halls of Eternity
9. Circling Above in Time Before Time

Summary: Immortal's third album (1995).