Immortal - All Shall Fall

Anyone else excited about the new Immortal CD due out this fall? They are the only Black Metal band I truly like. Sons Of The Northern Darkness is a metal masterpiece.

JBall_Z wrote:

Anyone else excited about the new Immortal CD due out this fall?

Affirmative. Looking forward to this one. Their last three have all been some of the best metal albums produced in the last 10 years, IMO. This band gets a bad rap because of the cheesy image, but the music is outstanding.

the music is indeed top notch. not a bad album in their discography. they just need to stop posing for photographs.

sweet, can't wait.

I like Immortal, well at least the only album I ever heard from them 'Sons of the Northern Darkness ' is a modern metal masterpiece. I have no idea what the rest of their albums sound like, but that C is excellent.

I'm looking forward to the new Immortal. Damned In Black and Sons Of Northern Darkness are both excellent albums.

mc666 wrote:

they just need to stop posing for photographs.

ALL their albums are great! Blazzard Beasts and Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism are my faves

I concur! Excellent black metal every album. Winter and Pure Holocaust are my Favs.

I think the cheese image works to their advantage, as there is no such thing as bad publicity. They just won't be able to pull off the REALLLLLLY tough guy image that Gorgoroth tries to do.

SlaytanicPOWER wrote:

I concur! Excellent black metal every album. Winter and Pure Holocaust are my Favs.

I think the cheese image works to their advantage, as there is no such thing as bad publicity. They just won't be able to pull off the REALLLLLLY tough guy image that Gorgoroth tries to do.

Agreed. Personally, I think the fact that they still wear the make up is cool.

My faves are At The Heart Of Winter and of course, Sons of the Northern Darkness. Damned in Black is not far behind.

I'm looking forward to the Demonaz solo project too. I understand he signed a deal with Nuclear Blast.

anybody check out the I CD Abbath put out a few years ago? It was really good.

sam wrote:

anybody check out the I CD Abbath put out a few years ago? It was really good.

it was decent, but i prefer Immortal's stuff. i agree with Lurideth, my fave is Blizzard Beasts.

sam wrote:

anybody check out the I CD Abbath put out a few years ago? It was really good.

Yes... I - Between Two Worlds, awesome CD. Top Five of 2006 for me.

Scored a copy of this CD this week. Have spun it once. Didn't really bowl me over on the first listen as it all sounded kind of samey. Need to give it several more spins.

ultmetal wrote:

Scored a copy of this CD this week. Have spun it once. Didn't really bowl me over on the first listen as it all sounded kind of samey. Need to give it several more spins.

Immortal is rarely taken in with one listen.

ultmetal wrote:

Scored a copy of this CD this week. Have spun it once. Didn't really bowl me over on the first listen as it all sounded kind of samey. Need to give it several more spins.

Immortal is deceptively a progresive band.All Shall Fall is solid,but perhaps if you heard "At the Heart of Winter" first, you could probably appreciate/understand Immortal a little more due to its German thrash metal influences, which have subtly been adapted to their sound and progressed on their 3 subsequent albums.
It should also be noted that a large percentage of Immortal fans had purchased/devoured the Abbath/Demonaz album "I",which was an Immortal album except in name,and are coming from a good place,ready for a BRUTAL Immortal album after the more tradiional metal/hard rock stylings of that album.
The vocals grow on you and you realize how awesome Abbath's evil eccentric Popeye voice really is.It's not a menacing Chris Barnes/Deicide guttural growl, more like a wise toad directing you away from the blizzard storm .
Lyricaly, I find Immortal interesting most of the time, Demonaz is an underated lyricist, there is a consistent poetic flow to his songs, odes to wars faught long ago, and stories of Antartica and snowdemons.I like the fact their lyrics to me are unsatanic, more fanciful/mystical in nature.
I would also encourage the novice Immortal listener to view the amazing video for "All Shall Fall" (Could some Immortal fan paste it on this thread for me?) and watch Abbath shake his ass at the 2:27 mark,and like getting hit in the face with a snowball, or someone pouring ice water on you unexpectingly, you finally understand what Immortal is all about. Immortal's music is about heavy brutality and not being afraid of who you really are, and have a good time doing it.
To me ,Immortal having the corpsepaint and costumes is an essential part of their identity, much like Kiss in that regard, except every other black metal band looks cheesy and stupid.Not Immortal. They look badass, and Abbath's warpaint reminds me of the cool G.I.Joe cobra operative, Zartan, another point in their favor.
I can't finish this posting without mentiong their drummer Horgh who is exceptional.

Gave it another listen at work today and liked it quite a bit more than the first time. It's subtly melodic.

Slower than their earlier stuff, but more catchy ... and has characteristics of thrash. Bought this one ealier in the year.

If you are new to Immortal then I don't recommend you start out with this album. I was very excited when it came out but this album was always going to have some tough competition especially from its immediate predecessor, Sons of Northern Darkness (SOND)

I think anyone who expected this album to be part 2 of SOND was sorely disappointed. I tried not to walk in on All Shall Fall with that expectation but, as with all bands that have a long legacy and many classic albums, it is always a bit difficult to be free of hindsight and of the habit of comparing the band's newer albums with older ones.

For anyone who has kept up with Immortal since their reunion several years ago, and saw the band live during their reunion tours, I don't think this album was going to come as a shock. During the reunion tour the band's setlist was very much tilted in favour of their earlier, more straight out black metal sounding albums, and only with a sprinkling of more recent material.

I think what they tried to accomplish with All Shall Fall was to return to a more chaotic sound, one that was not too dissimilar from say Battles in the North (3rd album) or Blizzard Beasts (4th album) yet retaining the epic vibe of At the Heart of Winter and Sons of Northern Darkness. In some ways it succeeds yet it can also sound like a bit of a tribute to the band's earlier sound and also to their influences, primarily Bathory's 80s albums.

Overall, it's an enjoyable Immortal album but I think it is better suited for long time fans of the band, not so much newer fans who are unfamiliar with the band's back catalog. There are definitely better Immortal albums that serve as a good introduction to the band (see Sons of Norther Darkness, At the Heart of Winter, Damned in Black and Blizzard Beasts - pretty much in that order).

This album has definitely grown on me since I've owned it. I've had it in regular rotation for a couple of weeks now. The video for "All Shall Fall" is awesome. The best Immortal video I have ever seen. It really captures the spirit of the band. You can really see Abbath channeling his inner Gene Simmons.