Immortal

thousand_suns

thousand_suns

Prowler
Ever heard of Immortal, a Norwegian black metal band?
Although I am not a black metal fan but today I watched 2 videos from Immortal on YouTube entitled Call of the Wintermoon and Blashyrkh. It is also the first time I watched black metal videoclips on that site.
When I watched both videoclips I cannot even understand what the singer Abbath Doom Occulta (Olve Eikemo) says. What I cannot bear is his own voice.  

Watch both videos:
Call of the Wintermoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBdAY8eA9w&NR=1

Blashyrkh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd5XGpHR ... ed&search=
 
thousand_suns said:
When I watched both videoclips I cannot even understand what the singer Abbath Doom Occulta (Olve Eikemo) says. What I cannot bear is his own voice.
Click to expand...

:lol:  Not many people can, don't worry! :)

far above the ravengate
the spreaded wings of blashyrkh waits
Above the roaring depths
Sits the oath of frost
On the elder raventhrone

Older mountains sleeping in my sight
By chilling woods I stand
A grimly sound of naked winds
Is all that shall ever be heard from here

Cometh the rightful kings of highest halls
Cry of tavens lurk the realm
Eternally through the noctambulant grimness

...Demons stride at the gates of blashyrkh...
...Blashyrkh... Mighty ravendark


I've seen the Blashyrkh video when it came out. Nice country, Norway, eh?
I really like this song! A black metal classic!

This is a better quality version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be0Rbm8MykM
 
I had heard a lot about Immortal and decided to download one of their albums - 'Sons Of Northern Darkness'. Not my favourite album - i deleted it a few days later  :P. That was my first real black metal album and I was quite dissapointed. It kind of put me off the genre but later I downloaded an Emperor album and found I loved it. The only thing I really dislike about black metal is the often garage like production. I know its intentionally done but it really puts you off when you try to do some concentrated listening. (That and the often reptilian vocal rasps  :bigsmile: )
 
supersonic said:
I had heard a lot about Immortal and decided to download one of their albums - 'Sons Of Northern Darkness'. Not my favourite album - i deleted it a few days later  :P. That was my first real black metal album and I was quite dissapointed. It kind of put me off the genre but later I downloaded an Emperor album and found I loved it. The only thing I really dislike about black metal is the often garage like production. I know its intentionally done but it really puts you off when you try to do some concentrated listening. (That and the often reptilian vocal rasps  :bigsmile: )
Click to expand...

*cough*TransylvanianHunger*cough*

I know what you mean...I prefer Emperor and Dissection and Necrophobic etc. to Immortal, Darkthrone et al.
 
Hungarian black metal band Sear Bliss I have always found special. Sear Bliss was the first ever black metal band getting the "album of the month" credit in Dutch metal magazine Aardschok, back in 1996.

Especially the two very different albums "Phantoms" (1996) and "The Haunting" (1998).

Great artwork by Kris Verwimp imo:

phantoms1.jpg

haunting1.jpg


Not the tightest musicians, but their sound is original with trumpet (nowadays trombone), and atmospheric keyboards!

I made an interview with their bandleader, about 5 years ago:


Fragment:

- Kris Verwimp made all covers of your albums. There is always a bird with spread wings on them. What does this bird mean? Do you also bring ideas for the covers, or are they only Kris Verwimp's ideas? Did he also do the cover for "Forsaken Symphony"?

- Kris Verwimp made all the cover artworks for Sear Bliss, including "Forsaken Symphony" as well. Usually we give him ideas, we tell him what we would like to see, we send him the lyrics and a tape with the songs and then he paints the artwork and of course he puts his ideas into it. He is a great artist, the best one for Sear Bliss. Yes, that bird plays an important role on the cover artworks of our albums. It represents the soul of the listener, the one who listens to the music at that moment. We would like to carry the listeners into our worlds and this bird shows on the covers where we are at the moment. Actually, that bird plays an important role in ancient Hungarian mythology as well and that's why we use it on our covers.
 
If it weren't for the font used for the band name I would have never guessed it was a black metal band... great covers both, now I'll have to look up hungarian mythology to see what this bird thing is all about.
 
You see, Sear Bliss sound good to these ears for several reasons;

1). Their albums don't sound like a Darkthrone release they were recorded in a toileta Darkthrone release, basically.

2). The band aren't so caught up in their image that they forget about the music.

Also, those covers remind me of another great BM band, this time from Austria.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=29

Nearly all of Summoning's albums are based on Tolkien's works, but somewhat darker than Blind Guardian or Led Zep.  Good use of Atmosphere, as well.
 
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