Well Immortal Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism managed to come straight out of the gate with what was a very professional and quite well recorded debut. Bear in mind at round this time (June 1992) you had the second wave of black metal only starting to appear (Cradle of Filth, Emperor etc) but this at least from a recording standpoint was head and shoulders above the first Emperor record, making it a lot easier to listen to.
This like nearly every debut album from the then embryonic Norwegian black metal scene is not representative of the greatness the band would go on to achieve but even going back and listening to this now days you can see the riffage style that Immortal became famous for is there, and Abbath’s are actually really cool. There’s some great catchy melodies. I got into Immortal on the album after this when I was a teenager but went back and got this one fairly soon afterwards. It was a great album to sit back in bed in the darkness and groove out to. The production though significantly better than their peers at the time still has a the Norwegian cold feeling about it. The lyrics follow the “winter” theme the band are known for carrying through their career.
“Call of the Wintermoon” is a great introduction to this band and shows off their skill and breakneck riffage rather well. The song is fairly representative of whats going on through the album but the 4th track “Cryptic Winterstorms” is a great slower number which allows the melodies to breathe a little more and provides a great change of pace. Some nice melodic bass playing really sets this apart from other tracks on the album.
The greatness continues on with “Cold Winds of Funeral Dust” and “Blacker than Darkness”. With this record the band managed to create something that to me fits in with the aesthetic of Early Bathory or Mayhem but with a greater musical ability. For me this is when black metal really became legit, with the musical standards rising to the point it wasn’t just basement dwelling weirdo’s listening to this but more of a legitimately musical release that would make the wider metal world take note. Lastly the song “A Perfect Vision for a Rising Northland” finishes off the with a melodic acoustic intro and a crushing vortex of black metal riffage. within this song we see some tastefully added keyboards and very dynamic songwriting. This is a great album but only a glimpse of what the band would release into the future.
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