Year of release: 2018
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Rating: 7,5 / 10
Well, this day has come. Although I have not experienced very warm feelings for IMMORTAL for a long time, one can not help but admit that even after turning into a goblin tent they continued to make very good music. Now, when the circus together with the main clown went on independent tours, there are left only two magicians who can extract icicles from the sleeves and fart with blizzards. Of course, I'm not saying that with the departure of Abbath, IMMORTAL suddenly turned into a serious band, and they didn't began to play Black Metal, but still such changes can only be welcomed.
Fears / hopes that the new album IMMORTAL will be a copy of the solo album of DEMONAZ, fell short. This is a copy, but copy of IMMORTAL - at least of most part of it. The only thing missing is the discordant sounds of the debut and the long gloomy winterstorms of "Pure Holocaust". Everything else is here. he characteristic features of each album, beginning with "Battles in the North", have found the embodiment / rethinking on the new one. There is a merciless blizzard flinging handfuls of snow in the face, and epic enlightenments with a view of the vast landscapes slumbering in the ice chains. But there is no more Abbath's heavy metal melodics. Without a doubt, this will scare off many young adolescents of a fat crab, and that's great! The replacement of heavy metal came quite expected - BATHORY influences. They are not as epic and melodic as on "March of the Norse," and I suspect that it's intentional. The whole album is sustained in a rather gloomy spirit, not allowing lightheadedness. Grim and dark! Demonaz's vocals are also very serious. It is performed in a purely extreme spirit, not at all similar to his singing from a solo album, or to the quacking of Abbath. I must say that after the first song you get used to it.
The disadvantage of "Northern Chaos Gods" is it's overly diligent adherence to all the traditions of the group - musical, aesthetical, lyrical. With the lyrics, the situation is especially difficult - the musicians decided to go the road of MANOWAR, as if they drove a set of favorite words into a text generator. The names of songs like "Into Battle Ride", "Gates to Blashyrkh", "Where Mountains Rise", "Mighty Ravendark" are just as... welll... canonic as lyrics to them. "Northern Chaos Gods" does not contain any surprises and notable innovations. It seems that the musicians were afraid to challenge their fans - and it's not a good decision, because this is not creativity but compromise. After a 9-year break, the spherical IMMORTAL in a vacuum is also perceived well, but I'm sure that the album could be better.
English (UK) 
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