Review By: Jason Deaville
Rating: 7.0
Well, this is a tough one, my fellow Nordic black metal connoisseurs. Yeah, the above-pictured album cover from the legendary Immortal (their tenth album) sports all the requisite ice-covered mountain-y kitsch one can easily find adorning most black metal albums of this ilk, with none of the elements feeling particularly out of place. Unfortunately, the one thing that truly does feel out of place is that logo. Let me explain.
The last album, 2018’s Northern Chaos Gods, was an exceptional entry into post-Abbath era Immortal. With the crab-walking one’s departure, it was now up to Demonaz (Harald Nævdal) to ensure the legacy lived on. To his credit, he took every nuance and convention from the previous nine albums and continued in the classic Immortal idiom rather than redefine what had long been defined. This feat can’t be understated, as Demonaz – who already had defined himself outside of Immortal with his self-titled solo project from several years ago – could have taken this thing in any direction he so wished. The slate was clean with Abbath out of the picture. He chose to remain trve and the fans rejoiced!
It’s been five years since Northern Chaos Gods, and my how times have changed. In that time, we’ve seen the exit of long-time Immortal drummer, Horgh. This now leaves Demonaz as the sole member of the now one-man band, apart from session work by Ice Dale (Enslaved, Demonaz, Malignant Eternal) on bass and Kevin Kvåle (Gaahls Wyrd) on drums. Of note, Ice Dale also provided session work for Demonaz’s solo album, March Of The North.
Judging by the title track, War Against All starts off promising enough. The song unleashes a torrent of frigid Immortal blastbeats, encasing everything within earshot in ice. Demonaz‘s vocals exude an intensity that was never quite found on previous Immortal albums. His pitch is actually quite diverse, ranging from a sharp screech to some epic lower register howls that takes the song into some very cool realms. The song doesn’t let up from start to finish and sets what I was hoping would be a precedent for the rest of the album.
The second track, ‘Thunders Of Darkness’ starts in much the same way as the first, but quickly takes a turn into familiar territory, more specifically territories charted in Demonaz’s solo project, which is rife with Bathory influence. This influence seems to have carried over to many of the songs found on War Against All. In fact, heading into the third song, ‘War God’, one can absolutely hear the Quorothon influence at its most pronounced, with its main riff a plodding, mid-paced banger that could have easily lived on Blood, Fire, Death era Bathory. This is also equally true for the fifth track of the album, ‘No Sun’.
If the Bathory influence weren’t enough – and still on the topic of the song ‘No Sun’- we are also treated to sneak peeks of another legendary black metal band. Mayhem. This one was a surprise to me. Now, I can’t be absolutely certain, but I believe this is the first time I have heard anything remotely Mayhem-like on an Immortal album. The homage is as clear as day once the dissonant riffing kicks in about midway through the song. This approach can also be heard on the album’s finest moment, fittingly titled ‘Immortal’. This is the one moment of the album where things sound decidedly askew, recalling some of the crazy, off-kilter riffage of Inquisition. Very cool indeed.
While we are on the topic of no sun, did anyone else notice, and I hate to call it this, laziness, of some of the song titles? We have back-to-back tracks with essentially the same theme: ‘No Sun’ and ‘Return To Cold’. We get it, Demonaz, you love a nice cup of hot chocolate and fluffy pajamas on a cold winter’s night. How black metal of you.
Now, none of the above is meant to sound scathing or detract anyone from listening to War Against All. It is a good album in its own right, it’s just not the album I expected to hear from a band well into the third decade of their career. War Against All, in my honest opinion, would have made a great follow-up to Demonaz‘s 2011 solo album, which we are all still waiting for.