IMMORTAL „Pure Holocaust”

Immortal's sophomore full-length release 'Pure Holocaust' is considered to be the defining moment of the band. And not without good reason. The record sheds the atmospheric interludes still present on the previous record and goes out to battle with a dark and relentless call to arms. The Death Metal influence now shed, we are treated to a barrage of wicked blast beats by the band's new skin beater Erik (of later Borknagar fame) who sadly committed suicide a few years back. The slow structured riffs are replaced by the haunting, angry wails of the guitars. The classic Immortal sound is born…

This album is supremely cold and dark yet manages to avoid the often cartoonesque satanic imagery employed by bands like Dark Funeral. It makes you want to stand up and fight and unleash hell on everyone and everything in your path. An absolute highlight to me is the second track: 'A Sign For The Norse Hordes To Ride'. The hypnotic guitar theme combined with Abbath's relentless call to arms manages to spike to your imagination and produce images of fierce warriors battling for supremacy on the cold wintry plains. The interesting thing about this record is that it manages to achieve all this with relatively simple tools and relies purely on the skilled delivery of the band members and their permeating earnestness instead of supposedly 'evil' interludes and atmospheric keyboards. For this fact alone 'Pure Holocaust' stands on lonely heights alongside albums such as 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' or 'Transilvanian Hunger'.

Yet again the production is great. It manages to avoid the poor garage quality of some Black Metal records without sounding overproduced. I believe that raw, garage production has its place but I am convinced that this record benefits greatly from the added clarity and edge and in doing so manages to sound colder than it would have otherwise.

If I can name one possible gripe that I have with this record it would be the fact that I wish the band let someone look over their lyrics before recording the album. Occasionally it comes across as if though they seem to enjoy using complex sentence structures and words without proper command of the language. On the other hand this gives the record a bit of added charm and is not really a major negative. To me this is THE Immortal record (although many would disagree and bestow that honor on 'Battles In The North').

This record will make the coffee freeze in your cup and make you wish you didn't throw away that wool sweater your mother gave you last Christmas. Any fan of cold and raw Black Metal really should have at the very least heard this record.

note: 10/10