Cold icewinds sweep my weightless body over the bridge to unknown lands. The fog was thick before me as I fell into the unknown realms. The darkness had fallen before me, as I saw my body fall into the ground. I am far away, I am far away from the sun… Beyond All Horizons features shorter reviews dedicated solely to black metal: a new release, an older album (a month, a year, a decade, or perhaps even longer), concluded with a hand-picked track of the week.
This week’s offerings, a venn diagram of fire and ice. One side blackened heavy metal (or heavy’d black metal?), the other grim and frostbitten darkness… meeting them in the middle is an album that will soon be celebrating a new awakening after almost two decades of slumber. First up is the triumphant new album from Fire Magic, followed by a double dose of Abbath and company with a revisit of the supergroup I and an icy plunge into an underappreciated Immortal track.
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New & Trve: Fire Magic – Memories of Fire
When it comes to black metal infused with the fire of traditional heavy metal, some bands relegate themselves to simple playing of old school riffs with blackened vocals. On sophomore full-length Memories of Fire Virginia’s Fire Magic strike a good balance between the two, as blast beats clash with soaring leads and classic drum patterns. There’s an inherent melodicism on tracks like “Break Them Against the Mountains” as extended trem picking layers up and spans the entirety of fretboard, before switching to epic held notes dripping with classic bombast. Production-wise the album drinks more from the black metal well, as the drums can feel like a wall of cymbals at times; thankfully the guitars strike as good a balance between black and heavy metal as the music, both robust and slightly lo-fi. And fortunately the bass is audible!
“Siege of Eternity” further takes the sound back with crunchy, palm-muted rhythm guitar straight out of the most hairspray-laden moments of the ’80s. “Imperishable Flame” takes on a more ballad-like structure, beginning with a much slower tempo before sultry clean guitars herald a glorious blasting finish replete with soaring lead guitar; unfortunately it fades out too early to hit as hard as it potentially could. When not channeling the fire of classic metal, Fire Magic take things in a darker, more Eastern European black metal direction in the form of more atmospheric, plodding passages (for more of this, check out their first full-length Undying Revolt). It’s not breaking any new barriers, but Memories of Fire accomplishes what it seemingly set out to do: rekindling the fires of old with bombast and precision befitting the modern-day underground.
Memories of Fire will be available March 6 through Stygian Black Hand. For more information on Fire Magic, check out their Encyclopedia Metallum page.
Old & Cold: I – Between Two Worlds
A couple weeks ago we were treated to the last multi-act announcement of this year’s Fire in the Mountains festival (“special guest headliner” TBA). While everyone else was gushing over Agalloch’s Ashes Against the Grain set, my excitement went through the roof over the most unexpected (yet welcome) surprise: Abbath at FITM, yet playing a Between Two Worlds set!? For the uninitiated, this 2006 album was the sole release from I. The black metal supergroup featured the former Immortal frontman alongside that band’s first drummer Armagedda, Ice Dale of Enslaved (these two to join Abbath at FITM), and former Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell (as “TC King”). The title no doubt refers to the space in which the album itself exists; a tremendous fusion of black and heavy metal that combines Abbath’s love for Motörhead, a heavy dose of Bathory, the ripping hard rock solos of Ice Dale, and the grim and frostbitten riffs that define the era of Immortal that featured Abbath on guitar.
The opening few songs of Between Two Worlds such as “The Storm I Ride” and the title track might give the impression that this project is simply mid-tempo heavy metal with an icy black metal guitar tone. Abbath channels Lemmy and Quorthon as his iconic frog croaks become partially sung vocals, and Ice Dale invokes his heroes like Ace Frehley and Jimmy Page with ripping blues scale solos. But the deeper the album goes, the more the blackened elements make themselves known. “Mountains” and “Far Beyond the Quiet” come off like the most hard rocking songs Immortal ever composed, and bonus track “Bridges of Fire” (please play this at FITM) feels like the spiritual successor to titanic Sons of Northern Darkness’ track “Tyrants” with low chugging riffs and sweeping chords. A fantastic slab of hard rocking frosty metal well deserving of another listen two decades after its inception, and I cannot wait to witness the second ever live performance on the beautiful lands of the Blackfeet Nation this summer.
Between Two Worlds was originally available through Nuclear Blast, but there’s some recent licensed copies available now through Edged Circle Productions. For more information on I, check out their Encyclopedia Metallum page, or keep an eye on Abbath’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Twilight Hour: Immortal – “Mountains of Might”
After Enslaved, Immortal is absolutely my favorite of all the second-wave black metal bands to come out of Norway in the ’90s. They may not have been the most technically proficient band, but man could they construct some killer riffs across all eras as a band. From what I can gather Blizzard Beasts is seen as a low point in the Blashyrkh boys’ discography, and I couldn’t disagree more. Is the production pretty bad, with the mix itself changing between songs? Sure. Will the start and stop blackened Morbid Angel riffs turn a lot of people off? Probably. But there’s a ferocious energy at work on the album, and it included a solid preview of where the band would be headed on At the Heart of Winter just under two years later.
Towering above the icy plains that encompass the rest of Blizzard Beasts is “Mountains of Might,” which is by far the longest track at over six and a half minutes. Despite still featuring Demonaz on guitar, this song proves that the melodic turn the band would take on Heart of Winter was not solely due to Abbath taking over on the six-string. A synth intro, sweeping trem-picked melodies, and some extremely “Abbath-ian” chords characterize the track (he is credited as the sole composer of the song). But most important are the extended clean sections that are the biggest hint at what would come on the following album, acting as shimmering snow banks in between the furious black metal blizzard. The most epic track on a underappreciated work of grim and frostbitten greatness.
Blizzard Beasts is available now through Osmose Productions. For more information on Immortal, check out their official website.
— Colin
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