{"id":81602,"date":"2018-06-29T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=81602"},"modified":"2018-06-29T06:24:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T11:24:52","slug":"a-triumphant-return-immortal-northern-chaos-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/a-triumphant-return-immortal-northern-chaos-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"A Triumphant Return: <b>Immortal<\/b> &#8211; <i>Northern Chaos Gods<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>For nine years fans of the legendary black metal band <strong>Immortal<\/strong> have been waiting for a new album to drop. Expectations for many were understandably crushed when the band entered into a long legal battle with former frontman <strong>Abbath<\/strong>, who then split from the band to form his own solo project, triggering further drama.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The nine-year wait heralds the return of <strong>Demonaz<\/strong> as guitarist, which is surprising since he previously retired from the instrument due to severe tendinitis (on that note, if you\u2019re a musician PLEASE look into Alexander Technique or body mapping. The amount of people who find themselves no longer able to play due to injury is absolutely staggering. I even have some moderate tendon issues from only four semesters of class piano where no one corrected harmful habits of mine.); he continues to be the band\u2019s lyricist and he\u2019s now taken up the mantle of vocals as well, with harsh, raspy croaks that sound worlds apart from the smoother, roughened melodic singing seen on his solo project.<\/p>\n<p>As Demonaz is writing the guitar lines again, longtime listeners of the group will notice that things are sounding a lot more like the first four records, before Abbath took over the guitar work due to Demonaz\u2019s injury. No surprise there. You can hear the more old school, thrashy aggression in the opening title track, and single for the album \u201cNorthern Chaos Gods.&#8221; The production quality is definitely much better than the earlier albums, which I\u2019m sure will have some purists decrying this as overproduced pop garbage, but I appreciate being able to hear the intricacies of the musical lines a little more easily.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_79418\"  width=\"320\" height=\"240\"  data-origwidth=\"320\" data-origheight=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c5uP9PlEDro?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cGates to Blashyrkh\u201d continues the band\u2019s long-established mythos with a galloping pace, broken up every now and then with undistorted arpeggios. Horgh is keeping the percussion parts interesting, driving the song forward without simply resorting to blast beats and rolling bass drum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere Mountains Rise\u201d hits a soft spot for me, as I always loved the Immortal songs with cheesier, epic themes the most. The songs following from this track continue that epic feel, but combine a small bit of the aggressive thrash stylings from the earlier half of the album.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMighty Ravendark\u201d is a phenomenal album closer, seamlessly moving from galloping aggression, epic atmospheric sections, and skillfully combining the different feelings from the whole album toward the end. If the only thing we had gotten from the band was a single containing \u201cNorthern Chaos Gods\u201d and \u201cMighty Ravendark,\u201d I\u2019d still be celebrating a triumphant return. As it is, what we\u2019ve ended up getting is a great new album showcasing all of the band\u2019s different directions, and one that has stayed much fresher after multiple listenings than Abbath\u2019s solo record. Definitely pick this one up.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38031\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?resize=1200%2C274&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?w=1249&amp;ssl=1 1249w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?resize=300%2C68&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?resize=1024%2C234&amp;ssl=1 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Northern Chaos Gods<\/em> is out July 6 through Nuclear Blast Records.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-81610\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C1200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?w=1500&amp;ssl=1 1500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=130%2C130&amp;ssl=1 130w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork-1.jpg?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For nine years fans of the legendary black metal band Immortal have been waiting for a new album to drop. Expectations for many were understandably crushed when the band entered into a long legal battle with former frontman Abbath, who then split from the band to form his own solo project, triggering further drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":81603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12,70],"tags":[3687,13195,80,13196,1671],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Immortal-Northern-Chaos-Gods-Artwork.jpg?fit=750%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}