Customer Reviews

At the Heart of Winter

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Now, I already reviewed the first version of this album, and being that it is in my top 5 favorite albums of all time, I figured I might as well add my review to the re-release. Also,don't mind the amazon review, that is for their first album released many years before this one.

Few albums come along in ones life where the music leaves you so speechless. For me, this is one of them. This is not only Immortal's best work in general but one of the greatest Black Metal albums ever to be released. Nothing can top Abbath's brutal riffs and his throat ripping vocals. The atmosphere of Darkthrone is here and the talent of Emperor. However, between all that makes this cd a masterpiece is some true beauty. Such as the main riff in Solarfall and the intro in At the Heart of Winter for a few examples. This is a true masterpiece of winter beauty and winter carnage.

1. Withstand the Fall of Time (8:29) The first track begins with a single riff before the rest joins in, while the riff not really memorable will grow on you. The first minute is spent gearing up before the song gets into full speed. About 3 and a half minutes into the song it slows down before getting a second wind about 4:15 into it and doesn't stop until the song quietly dies out. WOnderful opening track. I could not think of a better song to open up this album. 4.5/5

2. Solarfall (6:02) Immortal's best song of all time. A short drum roll falls in follwoed by one of my favorite riffs of all time then hell is broken loose upon an unsuspecting listener. The song does not let up for one second and has some of their best drumming as well. The vocals are enough to make you wish to conquer all you face. The vocals are almost dreadfully slow in a good way, almost like you wonder how he isn't tearing all of his vocal chords. The song slows down 2:20 into it with some slow drumming but soon returns with that crushing riff. Best song here. 25/5

3. Tragedies Blows At Horizon (8:55) This song is 8 minutes and 55 seconds of pure magic. It really starts up about 40 seconds into it and grabs you with hardened claws and refuses to let up. I love the way the guitar riff kicks in at 4:30 with nothing but a take no prisoners attitude. A real highlight on the album. 5/5

4. Where Dark and Light Don't Differ (6:45) The first song I heard on this album and it is a winner. The most thrash influenced track on this album has no mellow intro but just decides to come at you full force. The best drumming on the album appears here. The riff that kicks in at 1 minute is majestic and incredible. An epic track. 10/5

5. At the Heart of Winter (8:00) This song honestly makes you feel like you're walking into the front line of a war at the heart of a winter storm. This song runs on talent, emotion and an epic battle cry. The two minute intro can't even prepare you for what is to come. Then the rest of the song kicks in barreling down on you like an avalanche you know you can't escape. With guitar playing that just screams talent. The rest of the song continues the epic trail the first half of the song left us with. 20/5

6. Years of Silent Sorrow (7:53) Well, instead of ending this masterpiece on a quiet note. Abbath and crew decide to go out fighting. With one of the fastest songs on the album begins the drums tear through your ears. The guitar is pretty fast in an almost frantic fashion at certain times. "Dome in the sky black winds to taste
shadowed spirits lead my way...
Drifting everly alone years of silent sorrow
until I'm home... " With those words spoken the final song dies out leaving you only time to pick yourself up and try to comprehend the incredible album you just heard. 5/5

In conclusion, if you haven't stopped reading this yet and purchased this album. I recommend you do so right now. Enjoy.

This album is truly a masterpiece. Immortal has goneback to their heavy-metal roots. The songs are long and not complex as their previousalbums were. Different direction, not as fast as their older albums, but stillunmistakable Immortal. I trulyrecommend this album.

An excellent album by one of the titans of Scandinavian black metal, At The Heart Of Winter features what I consider to be Immortal's most solid line-up - Abbath on guitars (and pretty much everything else), and Horgh on drums. Horgh manages to maintain the tempos throughout, leaving Abbath free to concentrate on unleashing devastating blasts of distorted power. The production is also markedly improved over their previous efforts, and while those who consider themselves "tr00 kvlt" will no doubt bash this album for not having a "pure black metal sound", I think it fits the album very well. Why? Because Immortal had started to infuse their sound with elements of German thrash metal, and the enhanced production allows their updated guitar style to be heard in all its glory. Listen to the phenomenal riffage on "Solarfall" and "Where Dark And Light Don't Differ" for proof. On a more general note, the trademark Abbath "reptilian warlord from hell" croaked vocals are in fine form, and as usual, Immortal manages to inject beautiful melody and ambience amidst the carnage of whirlwind guitars and drums - check out the outro riff to "Withstand The Fall Of Time", "Solarfall" and "At The Heart Of Winter".

I consider this one of my three favorite Immortal albums, along with "Battles In The North" and "Sons Of Northern Darkness". It's well worth checking out.

I became a fan along with a friend a while back while searching through my brother's CD case. We found this, thought it looked cool, so we popped it in my boombox. The only black metal we knew of back then were Emperor, but we loved them to death, so obviously we enjoyed 'At...' This album was a major push into the world of black metal for my friend and I. I now own a multitude of black metal albums, yet this still seems to be one of my favorites. Also, its the only Immortal CD other than 'Sons..' than I can find! I find it incredible how these songs can be quite repetitive and still I can listen to each second of every song. I believe its because of the incredible atmosphere that was created with this album. I mean just listen to the all out beauty of Solarfall. The crunchy cold guitar riff, coupled with the distorted bass, gargled vocals, and insane drumming create a winterland of metal. Its really hard to explain, so please, do yourself a favor and check this one out!
The Band-
Abbath, guitars, bass, synthesizers, and vocals- I give Abbath incredible credit for being able to pick up guitar and synth duites as well as bass. Demonaz caught some sort of illness sadly that restrained him from playing the guitar. He still writes lyrics for Immortal though. I believe with this album Immortal found an incredible style of their own, since Abbath creates most of the material written nowadays. I am glad more clean guitar is being incorporated with Immortal's music. Abbath also creates some very cool keyboard lines as well, like those on Solarfall and the title track. Hail Abbath!
Horgh, drums and percussion- Horgh is one of the standouts of this album. His drumming isn't as fast as it is on 'Sons..', but it still fits the music perfectly and adds even more to that atmosphere I've been talking about. His percussive drums sound pretty cool too.

At The Heart of Winter is a perfect addition to any black metal collection, and probably should be in everyone's. Plus, it's a great starter CD for new black metal fan, because it isn't an all out attack on the senses, which many black metal bands try to do.

Let's start with the drama that happened before this recording. Abbath and Demonaz found their new drummer Horgh and released Blizzard Beats, which didn't fare as well as the group hoped. Well, the band regrouped to start working on this album when Demonaz suffered career-ending tendinitis. With the future of Immortal in doubt, the group forged ahead with Demonaz writing the lyrics, Horgh playing drums, and Abbath having to sing, play guitar, and play bass on the recording. The recording process was tedious and frustrating. All and all, Immortal needed to come out with that magnum opus just to stay sane...

... well, they did it, and this is that album.

You wouldn't think of it due to the 6-track length, but the album is over 45 minutes long. I can't single out a single track on this album as to which is more superior than the other because the album tells like a story. "Withstand the Fall of Time" is the perfect opening track because of how grandiose the opening of the song is; while "Years of Silent Sorrow" have the perfect ending because it brings down the house just like any live metal show. Remarkable riffs and some of the most intense drumming put to tape is all found here and everything that's right about metal is demonstrated on this album. The only way it could be more metal is if it started rusting, but then you couldn't listen to the CD so that's probably a good thing.

I recommend this album to all metal fans and all fans of music. I also recommend getting the CD as opposed to Amazon/iTunes download because while these guys made one of the best metal albums ever, they also shot some of the most unintentionally hilarious promo photos ever too and those can be found in the liner notes!

Immortal is a truly unique and great Norwegian black metal group, the lyrics in their songs have been inspired by occult themes and the Norwegian forests with its bitter cold climate and heavy winter. If you can look beyond the gimmicky face paint (they do look ridiculous almost like satanic members of Kiss) you'll realise what a great album this is, At The Heart Of Winter has great production value and a fantastic epic sound unlike their previous albums which were underproduced, the album also has some intricate guitar riffing and tempo changes while still retaining the blastbeats thats found in other Black Metal groups, the album was also produced by Peter Tagtgren who also produced for groups like Hypocrisy and Satyricon so if you liked those two then your going to love this.

There are songs like Solarfall and Tragedies blows at horizon which showcases the creative arrangements while singer and lead guitarist Abbath screeches like a beast, the songs still have a hint of melody but manage to sound heavy. The song Where dark and light don't differ sounds like the group might be preparing for battle or something and the drummer Horg comes up with some amazing drum patterns along with Abbath's great riffs which makes this one of the best black metal songs I've ever heard and The title track At The Heart Of Winter which starts of with a melodic intro and a synthesizer is quite bizarre and sounds very atmospheric in fact I just got a chill listening to it then the song starts blasting off with its heavy and cascading riffs and I must say that it was one of the best black metal tracks I've heard so far then the album closes off with the epic song Years of silent sorrow.

Immortal has definitely been influenced by Bathory especially on this album where you can tell that they experimented a little, anyway At The Heart Of Winter was absolutely perfect and it doesn't have a single bad song on it so if you like extreme or black metal music then you should definitely check it out, like I said Immortal are one of the best black metal groups out there.

The first music I heard from Immortal was the latest release "Sons Of Northern Darkness", and I was instantly hooked! I promptly picked up "At The Heart Of Winter", and, after hearing others in their catalog, regard this as their second greatest release. The music is varied and interesting to listen to (unlike Battles In The North...sorry guys!) with awesome riffs all over the place! It's been a while since I've been this excited about a band and am in awe of the power they incorporate into their playing. Although there are only 6 tracks, there is not a single bad song on here. You don't have to be a fan of so-called "Black Metal" (I'm not!) to love this album. I'm sure it will be one of my favorite CD's that I bought this year (and I buy a lot of music). Great artwork too! A must-have for the collection of any fan of real metal!

Immortal are now one of the undisputedly godliest icons of the Norwegian black metal circuit. But everybody has to start somewhere. The earliest parts of the band's career consisted of extremely raw and heavy black metal albums which ranged from mediocre-to-pretty good. (Although, granted, one exception to this rule has to be made for 1997's "Blizzard Beasts," which opted for a brutal black metal-by-way-of-Morbid Angel-lite-American death metal approach. The album was an exceptional one, thanks largely to Horgh's inhuman drumming.) And sure, many flashes of brilliance could frequently be heard throughout the band's career as young musicians. But something was usually still left to be desired from these early efforts. Various drawbacks included a lack of coast-to-coast consistency, a truly groundbreaking and landmark sound, and crisp and articulate production jobs. And there was an occasional rush job - the kind that left listeners scratching their heads. Everybody knew they were more-than-capable of finally releasing the great album that everybody knew they had in them. Only then could the group could the band fully grasp the true greatness and staying power that they had been flirting with for so many years. And only then could they start to warrant the status that they are now deadlocked in.

Well, all of that changed starting with the year 1999. With Horgh now a committed, full-time member Immortal could now settle down, and devote more of their time to more important things. Great songwriting and increasingly technical musicianship being two main examples. And lucky for us, their efforts paid off. Big time, too, because the result was `99's "At The Heart Of Winter," which was not only a satisfying new album, and a completely realized affair. It is the sound of a band that is now truly firing on all cylinders, too. So, frankly put, it is an indisputably smashing success on all fronts. Some elements remain from previous works, including skin-crawling and venomous vocal rasps that remain as true to pure black metal as ever. Overall, though, a huge improvement (who said "change") in sound has been made, here. As a result, Immortal suddenly sound many years smarter and more mature.

Only six songs may be presented here, but Immortal make more out of them than most bands can do with at least twice as many. Pick any given one of them, and you are sure to be satiated with it. Why? Because not-a-one of them isn't extremely expansive, innovative, complex, tight as a drum, epically epic (with songs being in the six-to-eight minutes margin), deliciously multi-faceted, and brillliantly written. The guitars are definitely the most integral part of the music is definitely the guitars, so it is imperative that Abbath sounds more dangerous than ever before. Well, he accomplished that goal without even breaking a sweat. After obviously spent some time boning up on some of metal's all-time most important genres, Eighties thrash, he is able to create mountains and mountains of wonderful shredding. Sounding almost like he is constantly engaged in a dogfight with himself, Abbath deftly spits out insanely intricate, razor-sharp, wrist-spraining, and positively godly riffage, fiery thrash picking, impeccably tight leads, and exceptional solos. Elsewhere, it is impossible to not mention Horgh, the man who has been one of the finest drummers in black metal for quite a while now. And he is also the man who anchors these songs with an endless flood of blistering, foundation-shaking black metal blasts, and occasional Lombardo-worthy thrash beats. Yet, for all of its brutal and breakneck parts and qualities, the music simultaneously manages to also include melody. Fortunately, unlike many-a-black-metal case, these melodies are never boring or tacked on. But they never feel excessive, either. So that is another big part of what makes "At The Heart Of Winter" so masterful. It expertly weaves in things like tastefully melodic guitar work and occasional keyboard flourishes to create melodic parts that are as prominent as they are memorable and infectious.

The standouts are many. The double-kick-backed opener "Withstand The Fall Of Time" splits its time equally between revving up the engines with propulsive, crunching thrash, and settling back down into more restrained chugging and mid-tempo grooves. Regardless of the speed the guitars, though, Horgh can always be heard thumping away at his bass drum like there's no tomorrow. Following this, the next couple of tracks "Solarfall" and "Tragedies Blows At Horizon" come next, and they much alike one-another. Opting for a really blistering approach, these two tracks could easily be mistaken for a prime couple of pieces of thrash from two decades ago. They both recall the halcyon days from the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Sadus, Testament, Sepultura, Dark Angel, etc. "Solarfall" and "Tragedies Blows At Horizon" are also similar in that, aside from the occasional and brief dabbling with a softly picked-string softly-picked string section, they both continuously shred your speakers. The former offsets some squealing guitar runs with busy, chunked-up picking; and the latter has really huge riffs anchored by slamming drum blasts. Continuing on, even though there should have never been any debate about it before, "Where Dark And Light Don't Differ", with its guitar leads that are positively scorching and fairly strong and solid bass work, further ensures that the intensity level is firmly glued in the upper red zone. The title tune is perhaps the best of the whole bunch. It begins as a awesomely beautiful and atmosphere-enhancing serene ballad with a lush musical arrangement comprised of thoroughly noteworthy and spacey-sounding keyboards, docile melodic guitar strums, and a faint choral backing vocal line. Eventually, though, it all ends up being heavy as a ton of bricks - brutal drumming and monstrous stop-start guitar flurries steamroll everything around. Lastly, we get "Years Of Silent Sorrow," which is basically one, long, inexorable flood of great, biting, nerve-damaging buzzsaw speed metal riffage.

"At The Heart Of Winter" not only stands as easily the finest installment in Immortal's long and storied discography, and is in and by itself a landmark metal album. And no matter which genre it belongs to (black, thrash, speed, or symphonic metal), it should be equally regarded as essential listening.

Speaking specifically of Norway, there are so many classic and vital Black Metal acts that dominated the field throughout the 90's - Dark Throne, Emperor, Satyricon, Mayhem, and of course Immortal. There's no denying that Immortal has been around practically since the beginning of Black Metal's cold-hearted Scandinavian reign, and despite being a source of endless debate over their lyrics, they've remained uncompromising and unwavering on their wintry path to domination.
But more important than all that is how Immortal transformed themselves into more of a profound Black Metal force than they ever were - especially with the release of "At The Heart Of Winter", and strangely doing so with musical elements that were not typically associated with Norwegian Black Metal. As it seems, just prior to the new millennium, many of the genre's high profile acts were looking for outside inspiration to inject new life into what they were considering a stale environment. Most fans discovered that Satyricon, Emperor, Mayhem, Tormentor, and a few others added surprising elements to their trademark formulas - some with good results, and others... well... ahem. But, when the almighty Immortal found themselves progressing, it was simply brilliant.
First off, to ease disciples of true Black Metal, Immortal's core sound is still here. The discordant minor-key guitars are still emanating pure evil and still give the listener mental images of northern mountains, icy fjords, haunted forests, and heathen ruins. But carefully intertwined within most of the tracks are riffs that, if it would not be for the tremendous pace of Horgh's drums, would be considered extremely creative Heavy Metal masterworks. There are even excerpts of lush and melodic guitar flourishes that go even further to transport the listener to the majestic icy northland, especially in "Withstand The Fall Of Time" and "Solarfall", where Iscariah's bass takes flight from the riffs to create melodically haunting and intense dynamics. The only thing that the hardcore Black Metal fiend will likely disprove of is the slower pace of some of the tracks, although on these occasions it works wonders to accentuate the mysterious atmosphere they've created. Despite how far Immortal took their sound on this album, their music and image still has "a special, individual identity and feeling" as they have said themselves. No matter where they've taken their sound, their main inspirations of Bathory, Possessed and Celtic Frost are still eminent as their lifeblood.
Another breath-taking aspect of the album is the amazing cover. The band was given a budget to commission a painting for the album, which was a twist because Immortal are notorious for posing on their covers themselves. The final product came out beautifully and was the perfect imagery to complement Immortal's music.
Much has been inferred concerning this album's direction since it was Immortal's first without Demonaz. Much of those criticisms are unfounded, as Abbath has made it clear that Demonaz is still very much a member of Immortal, albeit a "ghost member" due to his diminished role (he still contributes lyrics and serves guidance and direction since he can no longer play guitar). And even though Immortal took such a drastic turn with "At The Heart Of Winter" they immediately began infusing more of their older sound back into the mix on "Damned In Black" and beyond.

I loaded this one on my iPOD before I decided to sell it (since I thought it sucked). Poor, stupid me. Since then I've listened (giving it due time) and have decided this is definately one of the best BM albums I've heard. Sniff, Sniff. Moron!

Absolutely AWESOME!