A Black Metal Fail - "Battles in the North" Review (4%)

So... what is Battles in the North?

Battles in the North is some below average Norwegian black metal.

This concludes the review.

What do you mean you want more? Oh, very well then.

This is typical black metal: minor chords, tremolo notes with a treble heavy guitar tone, arranged into riffs which shift in dissonant and chromatic fashion, creating a sense of cold and darkness alongside generic blastbeat drumming and rough, raspy vocals.

And, it's from the country of Norway.

There, can I stop now or do you still want more?

Look, the real problem with Battles in the North is just that it doesn't do anything at all.

It's nothing more than some generic black metal, most of which has already been done (much better) before and almost all of which is high speed but incorporates the occasional slower section.

These slower parts also happen to be the least shitty bits of the album, though even the qualifier 'least shitty' may be too nice to use in this context.

Battles in the North is just another fail by Immortal.

A Black Metal Fail

Battles in the North is not a memorable album.

It's not particularly brutal or ferocious.

It has little to no atmosphere.

The production is somewhat clean, which simply serves to expose the fact that there aren't any interesting riffs here.

Inventiveness and creativity are absolutely zero.

Literally nothing stands out on Battles in the North, it's all so bland and uninteresting!

None of these songs are obnoxious or terrible like those on Nemesis Divina or Incipit Satan, but neither are they particularly exciting or memorable.

Why would anyone particularly want to listen to this?

If I happened to hear Battles in the North coming from somewhere, it wouldn't particularly annoy me... I'd just think 'oh look, there's some Immortal' and go on about my business.

Look, you've heard it all a trillion times before. It's fast, blasting black metal with a Norwegian "second wave" touch (think cleaner production and a Sewer-esque sound to the harmonies) and has absolutely nothing special over any other fast black metal band you can think of.

Battles in the North checks all the black metal boxes, albeit sometimes with difficulty, but goes absolutely no further at all.

This is black metal tofu - completely bland and tasteless, but also perfectly acceptable and inoffensive.

Other than that, it's just one big black metal fail.

Battles in the North score: 4/100.

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