Immortal – All Shall Fall

I might as well start this review with a disclaimer: Immortal is, without a doubt, one of the greatest black metal bands ever – and in my mind, they are the best there ever has been, and probably ever will be. Every single album they’ve released have stood out as something unique and special to me, and while someone who isn’t into the genre might quickly dismiss it all as noise, the black metal connoisseur will be able to tell the eerie sound in Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism from the brutal, raw, tight feel of Battles in the North, or the wide, panoramic mood set by Sons of Northern Darkness. My personal favourite is actually Damned in Black, which I feel is kinda weird, because both the title of the album and the timing of its release seems really odd, but I still love the way they managed to mix the sinister sound of black metal with the groove of… well, I don’t know what it is, but it certainly is groovy. And it’s not often you feel like complementing a black metal album with that word, is there?

So that’s my feelings about Immortal, and it should come as no surprise that I got up early the day their new album, All Shall Fall, was released, so I could take the trip down to my local metal store and grab a copy. My expectations were modest – Sons of Northern Darkness was their previous album, released as much as 7 years ago, and it’s not been that long since they reunited. Still, I was excited to hear what this new release would bring to the table.

I wasn’t very much surprised by what I heard. The Immortal I know definitely hasn’t changed, and despite the fact that the album sounds a lot like it’s simply building on Sons of Northern Darkness, it has a distinct feel to it which is hard to pin-point. There’s much more reverb added to the mix, and the sound in general is a lot fuller than anything I’ve heard from this band before. Of course, that can be good or bad, but Immortal has been doing perfectly well with a very convoluted sound before, so you might have a hard time shaking off the feeling that they’re compensating for something.

There are several drawbacks. The most important one is probably that there aren’t many memorable parts of the album. The acoustic bit in Norden on Fire stands out somewhat, but we’ve heard it before. The intro to Unearthly Kingdom is quite ear-catching, but it doesn’t do much other than provide a calm bit before the guitar kicks in and we’re back to basics. There aren’t any mind-blowing riffs, and there is never any change of pace in the music – pretty much all of it trudges along in the same tempo, with the same guitar, vocals and drums as always. You’ll also get a serious sense of deja vu after listening through the album a couple of times, as a lot of it sounds very much the same.

So is this album good or bad? It’s hard to tell. For an Immortal album, it’s hardly noteworthy, and unless it grows on me, I would be prepared to call it their worst. It’s repetitive and quite unimaginative, and so, even though it’s only 40 minutes long, it feels stretched out, thin and unsubstantial. On the other hand, compared to everything else you get these days, it’s not bad. And you can’t deny the fact that it’s been some time since Immortal was on top of their game.