Artist: Immortal
Country: Norway
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2023
With ‘War Against All’ the Norwegian Black Metal institute Immortal brings forth its 10th instalment. A new album alone is enough to revisit this monumental band, but a tenth album (and the second without the iconic Abbath) also gives ample reason to take stock, how does the band fare anno 2023… Not only is ‘War Against All’ another album without Abbath, this is basically yet another Demonaz’ solo album, as long-serving drummer Horgh also left the ranks. Without going into the details surrounding all the discussions regarding the legitimacy of the naming and such, ‘War Against All’ is now purely Demonaz’s solo work, with him being joined on bass by Ice Dale and on drums by Kevin Kvåle, both in guest roles only by the way.
Ever since the inner trouble started, which eventually led to Abbath’s departure in 2015, after the band took a short hiatus, all involved musicians seem to be in slow but sure decline. In all fairness Abbath’s solo albums can only be labelled as “decent” at best and Immortal’s last work, the 2018-released ‘Northern Chaos Gods’-album, had a very hard time of convincing. On a superficial listen, the album did provide some entertainment, but a deeper analysis makes the album similar to those solo albums by Abbath: the “reasonableness” of the musical work on offer lies largely in its recognisability. It is the raspy vocals, the fast passages that intersperse the epic grand pieces and the almost trademark strumming that lull the unwary listener into an apt hibernation. It is also in that continuity that we can place ‘War Against All’, the album is a kind of summary of all the phases Immortal went through in their prime years. It has sharp edges, it sounds epic, it sounds big. But it also all sounds pretty much second-best, as if these are all leftovers from a distant and much more successful past. Songs that didn’t make the cut to the album. Some of the songs are passable and most of them embrace the well-known Immortal DNA, but at no point can they match the work the band could bring to the table as a “tight-knit” collective.
In recent years, quite a few bands have emerged that employ Immortal as their main influence, among them are now bands that far exceed the level of what is on display here. At no point does Demonaz’s incarnation of Immortal get rid of the feeling of faded glory. Demonaz’s own truncated and unconvincing vocals are perhaps most indicative of what Immortal anno 2023 and in this capacity have to offer.
In the last Abbath-fronted years, Immortal was already slowly becoming a parody of itself. Abbath’s insane and alchol-soaked buffoonery was increasingly and violently detracting from what the band once was, don’t get me wrong by the way, I certainly don’t see Black Metal as a purely misanthropic institution, but if it starts distracting from the musical product to this extent then the ship is doomed to sink. Although the band is now “rid” of the problem child, very little remains musically. Immortal has now become a tribute band to itself, the ship is indeed sinking.
I ended the review for Abbath’s last solo album by saying that Immortal was so much more than the sum of its individual parts. And now that we can put ‘War Against All’ and Abbath’s ‘Dread Reaver’ side by side, that conclusion is more than firmly in place.
