SONS OF NORTHERN darkness, lords of the fictional, ice-bound realm of Blashyrkh, and one of the most defiant, iconic bands in black metal, Bergen’s Immortal were, for 24 years, a singular brotherhood forged around co-founders guitarist/lyricist Demonaz and frontman Abbath. Demonaz was forced to take a back seat for more than a decade due to acute tendonitis, but although he was cured by 2013, he and Abbath underwent a much-publicised split two years later, leaving Demonaz to resurrect the band with himself as frontman. As new album War Against All raises its banners, we sent him into battle with your questions.
How did your move from Bergen to the countryside [in 2019] affect how you wrote music for Immortal?
Adelina Ravenwraith, email
“When I was living in a city, I was always trying to escape from it. I like the city, but the countryside feels more free. Where I’m living now, it’s mountains everywhere, there is snow on the top, and I’m at the foot of the glacier where we recorded the All Shall Fall video. So it’s easy to write Immortal music here.”
What are Immortal’s greatest accomplishments and what are your biggest blunders?
Dustin Brand Miller, Facebook
“The biggest accomplishment is being able to re-establish the band. The vibe was really hungry on All Shall Fall [the last Immortal album with Abbath, released in 2009], but after that we didn’t know where to go, and couldn’t find our way back. I had to find the true spirit of what this band meant to me and Abbath from the beginning. The biggest blunder was to go from [legendary early black metal producer] Pytten and [equally legendary Bergen concert hall and set of studios] Grieghallen to the person who produced [1997’s] Blizzard Beasts. We thought that the new studio, [Sigma, also in Bergen] would make us a better record production-wise, but we ended up with a producer who couldn’t handle what we wanted.”