Immortal have been my favorite black metal band for a long time. I’ve heard some say that later Immortal albums are less black metal, but I say if you think better quality makes you less black metal then your standards are wrong. If you truly like the more raw sound that is fine, but I believe most people are only saying that because they think it gives them some sort of extra credit. I don’t believe I should have to struggle to tell what the band is even playing because they recorded with a hello kitty karaoke machine in the middle of the woods. Immortal put out some albums that are more approachable for the non initiated with some actually good quality production. If you are trv kvlt you might disagree with my list were as if you are coming from a broader metal background this list might be more appealing for you. Here’s my list be feel free to let me know how you’d do it different.

How this works; Songs are rated on a 5 star rating with each star having a value that is averaged together for the album rating. Average album rating will equal the band’s rating

1 star=0, I hate it! The world would be better off without this.

2 stars=25, I don’t like it but it could be worse

3 stars= 50, decent song but not special

4 stars=75, good song but is missing something that might make it amazing

5 stars=100, Amazing!

Live albums, demos, cover albums and EP’s are not included.

Note: Popular doesn’t mean great and importance doesn’t mean it’s good either. A chart topping song only means it is watered down enough for a mainstream audience.

#9

Battles in the North - 70%

This is Immortal’s third album and some how the production is probably the worse of any. For me, it is to high frequency and for that reason it can be abrasive and hard to listen to. With that said though it is maybe one of the most pure intense albums from Immortal with unrelenting blasting and speed.

The Good: If you are wanting some intense black metal this album has you covered. My favorite song on the album is “Cursed Realms Of The Winterdemons”

The Bad: The production is abrasive with to much high frequency in the mix.

#8

Diabolic Fullmoon Mysticism - 70.833%

The first album from Immortal. This album is has its intensity as well as some lighter sections giving this album some dynamics but not as much as later albums. Surprisingly the production is easier to listen to than even some albums that follow it.

The Good: Non of the songs hit the 5 star mark for me, but “A Perfect Vision Of The Rising Northland” is close. It’s the most dynamic song on the album and probably the one that stands out the most.

The Bad: This album isn’t bad nor is it that special for me. It is sorta bland in my opinion.

#7

Pure Holocaust - 71.875%

Immortal’s second album improves on the production from their first. It is similar to their first album where none of the songs stand out compared to the others and ends up being somewhat bland. With that said I can tell their song writing had progressed, but not yet to the point they would later achieve.

The Good: This is a decent album and has better production and more songs than their first.

The Bad: While this album is a slight improvement from their first it certainly isn’t the quality as Immortal would achieve on later albums.

#6

Blizzard Beast - 78.125%

Thankfully for this Immortal’s production gets rid of horrible high end that plagued the previous album. This album kinda goes in the other direction with the low end making it reminiscent of death metal bands like Morbid Angel. Although the production is better it doesn’t always sound consistent with some song songs on the later half of the album album sounding like the production quality lessened.

The Good: As a fan of Morbid Angel I also really liked that some of the songs sounded similar to MA while keeping a bit of the black metal edge. The more death metal songs are “Nebular Ravens Winter” and “Suns That Sink Below”. “Mountains of Might” blends the death and black mix much more toward the black metal side and is maybe my favorite track. It has the dynamics of some of the great songs Immortal is known for writing with both clean and brutal sections.

The Bad: As said before, some of the later songs on the album seem to have worse production for some reason. It could simply be a tuning or guitar tone difference, but it’s noticeable.

#5

Northern Chaos Gods - 81.25%

The most recent Immortal album and the first to not have Abbath in the band. As a big Abbath fan with both Immortal as well as solo and the band I, I was hesitant to even get this album. However, I was presently surprised when this album was actually pretty good. It for sure lacks Abbath, but remains sounding more like Immortal than I thought it would. This is the first album since Blizzard Beast that had Demonaz on guitar who had stopped playing do to Tendinitis.

The Good: This album is both intense and dynamic. Perhapse my favorite tracks are the opening track “Northern Chaos Gods” which is maybe the most intense on the album as well as the last track “The Mighty Ravendark” that is much more atmospheric.

The Bad: As much as I can say this album is good, I still think it would be better if Abbath was still in the band.

#4

Sons of Northern Darkness - 90.625%

If I’m going to grab an Immortal album to listen to it’s going to be one of the top 4 the vast majority of the time. This is a strong album and is the first one on this list that supposedly has a thrash element. Although there are a small percentage of drum sections that might sound thrashy, this as well as all other Immortal albums are black metal. Even black/thrash bands like Skeletonwitch sound very distinctively different from Immortal which sound drastically different from any pure thrash band. with that rant out of the way lets move on.

The Good: I’m a big fan of the “viking” sound pioneered by Bathory and this album blends some of that in. My favorite tracks on this album are probably the last two “Antarctica” and “Beyond the Northern Waves”

The Bad: I don’t have any complaints about this album.

#3

Damned in Black - 92.857%

As I do these ranked album lists, I skim through the albums to make sure it’s fresh in my head as I write these. This one is the first one I hit were I really don’t want to move on to the next album because I find it difficult to stop listening to this one. Again this one has sections that someone could consider thrashy how ever thrashy black metal is still black metal. The “thrashy” elements of this album just make the band sound tighter than most black metal bands. They are to the point where they are actually don’t sound sloppy, it doesn’t mean they are thrash, it just means they don’t suck.

The Good: I love this album out of the seven tracks 5 of them got 5 stars and the other two got 4. I highly recommend this album for anyone getting into Immortal. Despite this album being ranked #3 I think I personally would put it at #2. The 5 star songs on this album I like better than a lot of the 5 star songs on the next album on this list.

The Bad: The two tracks that only got four stars are “The Darkness That Embrace Me” and “In Our Mystic Visions Blest”. But the other songs are must black metal masterpieces that are hard to live up to.

All Shall Fall - 96.428%

When I think of this album I always think of it’s epicness. This album more so than any reminds me of that “viking” style pioneered by Bathory. As I mentioned before even though I rank this one #2 under my system I probably like Damned in Black better. This album as has some songs at are amazing and deserve the 5 start that I gave them but I still like a lot of the 5 star songs on Damned better.

The Good: This album is great if you are wanting epic sounding black metal. When I’m in the mood for epic Bathroy this album fits nicely with those albums

The Bad: I actually think the production of this album is a little less clear than the few preceding albums.

#1

At The Heart of Winter - 100%

This album is one of the few that gets the coveted 100%. For me this one is a complete masterpiece. The jump from the preceding album “Blizzard Beasts” is huge. This is the first peak of of Immortal and the following albums would be stylistically very similar.

The Good: All of it!

The Bad: A love this album and wish it has the production of Damned in Black, but with that said the production is fine just not as good as the following ones.

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