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Between Two Worlds (Nuclear Blast)
by Martin Popoff

The Beatles, The Police, Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden, Emperor… Immortal. All are bands that shocked the faithful by breaking up in their prime. In Immortal’s case, Abbath sort of disappeared (to do scaffolding), and then word got around about this I thing. Well, it’s here, and despite what you hear from the more extreme press and even Abbath himself, this is not really a mainstreamy hard rockin’ biker rock release. More accurately, it’s easy-on-the-ears Immortal, almost a trajectory drawn from that band’s immense Sons of Northern Darkness record of 2002. Helping thaw the somewhat jovial ice king, the production of the album is warm on bass and wet on drums. Then Abbath, along with his pretty damn distinguished band of Norwegian black metal brothers, set about creating grooves of various palatable speeds, all with just enough permafrost doom ice-picked into the melodies to make the whole butt-shakin’ (butt-freezing?) collection sound like efficient, high fidelity… Bathory? Call it today’s Voivod crossed with the last two Immortal albums and you’re sort of in the right sci-fi stun guitar space, Abbath creating epic worlds that draw the listener in with a sense that something historically newsworthy is about to happen… after that first guy chucks a rock.
(www.nuclearblastusa.com)