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Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
Copyright © 1999 Osmose
1. Withstand The Fall Of Time
2. Solarfall
3. Tragedies Blown At Horizon
4. Where Dark And Light Don't Differ
5. At The Heart Of Winter
6. Years Of Silent Sorrow
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Immortal faced a point in their career when it was clear the older ways could not go on. Their original guitarist had left to nurse a repetitive stress injury, their style had run the gamut of black metal in several forms back to its roots in extreme death, and the black metal audience itself had changed into a wider but less literate group. The band returns to the attack with an album that is both brilliant and clearly designed for wider acceptance. Using classic Immortal technique in both physical and compositional factors, this time around the band wrap their ingenuous song structures around epic heavy metal and make an album that is both memorable and easy listening for anyone exposed to the past few generations of metal. The potency and widecast worldview of classic Immortal is here, but it is given a stadium feel by its now condensed and anthemic approach. Vocals are distorted, and guitars still slide between fifths and inverted chords to produce a dissonant harmonic effect, but what is most impression-making is the way all of the technique and energy of past incarnations has been distilled into such simple songs that while not overtly different from most of the radio metal of the past generation, convey their unique voice and effect independent of any allusions.
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