Immortal - All Shall Fall

October 9, 2009

Reviewer: Matt

- Introduction

News of Immortal’s reformation took the metal world by storm in 2006, when it was announced that the iconic Norwegian act would not only reform to tour but to record a new album.  With Demonaz’s departure after Blizzard Beasts marking an end to an incomparable streak of landmark albums, Immortal never quite recovered.  At the Heart of Winter represented a drastic creative and stylistic shift, but was an appropriately well received album that remains one of my most-listened to Immortal albums today.  Damned in Black was a largely pedestrian affair, the worst album of their career by far.  They recovered for the excellent 2002 release Sons of Northern Darkness, retiring shortly after its release.  In the seven years since that album, Immortal has toured, and Abbath recorded a new project called simply I, a throwback to classic heavy metal that met with critical acclaim by the mainstream metal press.

Now, in 2009, Immortal is back with a new album and new more plans for world domination.  The album was kept tightly under wraps by the band, with not even a single Myspace sample released before the European street date.  My anticipation was great, and my expectations were high.

I’ve never written a track-by-track, but in light of the album’s bafflingly inconsistent quality and my immeasurable respect for Immortal’s legendary accomplishments, I feel it’s appropriate to give each song its due course.

- Track-by-track review

“All Shall Fall” starts off well enough, immediately invoking the wintry atmosphere of At the Heart of Winter with a furious lead riff that ends with a great melodic  flair.  Following an unremarkable rhythmic riff that backs an equally unremarkable solo, a downtempo and spoken word passage prelude a droning atmospheric section that segues back into the lead riff.  Again I’m reminded of the songwriting approach on At the Heart of Winter.  The heaviness certainly takes a back seat to the melody on this track.  The last section has some embarrassingly bad half-clean vocals from Abbath.  Overall, it’s a pretty good, if unspectacular, opening track, though primarily because of the lead riff.

“The Rise of Darkness” opens like an I track.  The rollicking rock ‘n’ roll riff is quite simple and is obviously building up to something else, but the riff is boring and it takes too long for anything to happen.  What it’s building up to is pretty shocking: while the subsequent riff would’ve fit on any of their last three albums, compositionally it’s structured as a breakdown.  The riff runs through its initial cycle, then repeats with a double bass run, then it layers on a melodic lead, then there’s a transition to an unrelated thrash riff.  If that pattern sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a standard metalcore formula.  The track ends with the same introductory riff backing another boring solo.  Though other tracks on the album are more forgettable, “The Rise of Darkness” is memorably awful.

“Hordes of War” is the best track on the disc by a mile.  This is what the metal world needed and was hoping for - a blistering blackened thrash number with a killer syncopated lead riff, like Deströyer 666 playing in a blinding blizzard.  It’s brutal, melodic, with all the rhythmic complexity for which Immortal is legendary.  A short but excellent Slayer-esque lead tops off a track that I wish was representative of the entire album.

“Norden of Fire” starts again like an At the Heart of Winter track.  The first two riffs are pretty good, but then the songs ambles into a lazy shuffle, and it never really recovers the earlier intensity.  Structurally this song is almost exactly like “Tragedies Blows at Horizon.”  Particularly due to the high quality of the preceding track, “Norden of Fire” seems stale and uninspired.  The solo is pretty good, and I’m struck that this is probably the most soloing on any Immortal album.

“Arctic Swarm” is the shortest cut on the album.  It’s a mid-paced thrasher with a chorus riff that’s a rough variation of that on “Withstand the Fall of the Time.” The middle section is mellower and utilizes keyboards for great atmospheric impact.  Though the songwriting is pretty simple, the song is remarkably effective and immediately enjoyable.  Overall it’s probably the second best song on the album.

“Mount North” is basically another variation of the title track and “Norden of Fire.”  Beginning with the same basic riff pattern as those two tracks, it shifts into a strange guitar lead and syncopated drumming that invokes metalcore more than black metal. 

“Unearthly Kingdom” wraps up the album.  Yet another At the Heart of Winter knockoff, this track is remarkable only in that it manages to use not one remarkable riff in its eight-plus minute runtime.  Even after a tantalizing black metal riff, the track descends further into genericism with a throwaway thrash riff, a bad mimicry of the transition out of the keyboard interlude of “Withstand the Fall of Time”, and an awkward transition to the lead riff. It’s a disappointing end to a disappointing album.

- Analysis

I expected, at the least, a stylistic follow up to Sons of Northern Darkness.  The raging blackened thrash of that album displayed immense instrumental precision and a keen understanding of rhythmic songwriting.  It was a brutally heavy, immaculately produced, and generally well written album.  As my track-by-track makes clear, All Shall Fall does not pick up where Immortal left off seven years ago, but instead recycles themes and methods of At the Heart of Winter, Immortal’s least heavy and arguably least dynamic album.  That approach essentially wore itself out over the course of that album, leaving little room for a follow up that didn’t substantially progress that sound.

All Shall Fall is a disappointment.  Though it’s abundantly clear that Demonaz was the creative force behind Immortal’s best years, Abbath displayed impressive songwriting chops on two of the three last albums, and his trademark riffing technique and melodic voicing remains imitable today, and I don’t think my expectations for this album were unwarrantedly high.  Unfortunately we’re treated to rehashes of past glories and a few highly questionable incorporations of pop metal techniques.

All Shall Fall simply lacks the furiously unbridled energy and the trailblazing spirit that is the sine qua non of Immortal’s success.  With the exception of the brilliant “Hordes of War” (possibly their best song since Demonaz’s departure) and the solid “Arctic Swarm,” All Shall Fall is sterile and forgettable.  The songs plod along slowly, lazily.  here are no feats of riffing wizardry like in “Tragedies Blows at Horizon” and “Where Dark and Light Don’t Differ.”  Instead we have familiar melodies in slow, simple, rock-based riffs composed of patterns of two or three alternating chords.

All factors considered, it is puzzling why Immortal chose to reform.  Horgh drums for Hypocrisy, and Abbath has I, so it’s not likely that either lacks opportunity to make music or tour.  Perhaps they simply wanted to don the corpse paint, tour the world, and delve deeper into the mythology of Blashyrkh - all laudable motives, if only because Immortal solidified their place fifteen years ago in the metal hall of fame and they have earned the right to rest on their laurels.  Nothing short of releasing a dance pop album could undermine my respect for them or the impact they’ve had on the music.  But All Shall Fall is not the release for which we waited seven years.  Buy the album, see them on tour, and revel in your chance to experience Immortal again, but don’t be too disappointed by this largely sub-par release.

Release Date: October 6th, 2009
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  All Shall Fall
2.  The Rise Of Darkness
3.  Hordes Of War
4.  Norden On Fire
5.  Arctic Swarm
6.  Mount North
7.  Unearthly Kingdom

Total playing time:  40:10

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