The Great Collection Rediscovery

Album: Battles in the North

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: In contrast to Pure Holocaust, Battles in the North seems to often be the early Immortal album that gets somewhat frowned upon by fans, or at least it did when I was discovering them. It does seem to enjoy a bit better reputation today. There are good reasons to look down upon Battles, at least as far as my personal copy goes: it has technical errors for a start, with the track cuts coming in the wrong place, always just after the song actually starts. The album sounds fucking rough even for black metal and not in the cold, necro way that kvlt BM fans adore. And yet this is my favourite of the early Immortal albums. It just fucking works for me on a level that the others don't. Even if the guys do look more ridiculous than usual on the cover. 

New Rating: No Change. 

Love this album and Blizzard Beasts. I don't really need much more Immortal outside those two albums.

Album: Blizzard Beasts

Old Rating: 3/5

Verdict: Okay I think I have probably sold this one a bit short over all these years. I think part of my problem was that I was quite young when I got this and at that age expected more quantity for my money, this not even being a full half an hour long which seemed ridiculous for a full length album. But the material's generally solid.

New Rating: 4/5

Album: Damned in Black

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: Immortal goes a bit thrashy on this sixth studio album. For me Damned in Black is an underrated one in their discography, perhaps because it's sandwiched between their best two albums. Indeed it's not quite as special as either of those, but this is still Immortal close to the top of their game. 

New Rating: No Change. 

Album: Wolves

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: Deadlock is one of those bands where I'm always glad that I own this album but at the same time and content to own just this album. Kind of a one is all you need group. I have heard other stuff they've done but they never released anything else to change my mind about this. Of course it didn't help that on their next album they stuck a song which suddenly turned from their usual metalcore tinged melodeath into a pure hip-hop track that sounded like two very different artist's albums suddenly got mixed up in the studio. Actually they do that here as well, but with techno, which somehow works. The next album made me think they'd lost the plot though and while later records weren't that bad, they haven't really made anything of note since ever. One is all you, or at least, I, need.

New Rating: No Change. 

I sometimes forget how much I like Immortal and I have all their albums bar the most recent (which I really need to pick up). 

Like many bands I've listened to for that long a time, they'd be much higher on my Last.fm charts if they went back a few more years. 

Album: Heart of Darkness

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: I feel like I overlook this one sometimes, but Heart of Darkness is still very much a part of a very impression run of albums in the 1990s for Grave Digger. I always manage to confuse their song Shadowmaker with Running Wild's much later one though, perhaps due to them also having an album called that. Makes a poor RW album more memorable than it actually is and then I put this on and think 'oh shit, that's a Grave Digger song is it?' Every damn time.

New Rating: No Change. 

Album: All Shall Fall

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: The first of Immortal's two comebacks and the final album with Abbath (short of a future reconciliation with Demonaz) removes the thrashy sound of the end of their original run and sticks to the basics of black metal. I was initially more lukewarm to All Shall Fall compared to other Immortal albums, but over time I've warned up to it considerably and now consider it a fine work. I assumed this one would be a drop to a 4 before relistening to it but it's one of those albums that is always better than you credit it for. 

New Rating: No Change.