All good things come to an end, and as of March 2015, the legendary Black Metal double act of Abbath Doom Occulta (real name Olve Eikemo) and Demonaz Doom Occulta (real name Harald Nævdal) reached its disappointing and unfortunate conclusion. For years, Demonaz had acted the straight man, a perfect foil for his gurning, crab-walking, tongue-waggling partner, but since the pair went their separate ways, he has now chosen to step forward and take centre stage in what appears to be a more focused and serious vision of Immortal.

Having released his own highly regarded solo album March of the Norse (Nuclear Blast) back in 2011, it’s not the first time Demonaz has stood in the limelight alone. However – and not forgetting long-standing (well, seated anyway) drummer Reidar Horghagen (Horgh to his friends) – this is the first time of doing it under the more prominent Immortal banner.

Having served as the band’s lyricist since the beginning, it will come as no surprise to hear that the subjects Demonaz covers on the new record Northern Chaos Gods (Nuclear Blast) are all as suitably grim and frostbitten as you could possibly wish for. Returning to the band’s nineties roots, the album sounds like a cross between Pure Holocaust, Battles in the North, and At The Heart of Winter (Osmose) – all with a more than an unsurprisingly large barrel of Bathory tossed in for good measure.

Dispensing with the notion of any tentative toe-dipping, the blistering title track unceremoniously opens proceedings with speed and a furious energy not heard from the band in years. This is classic Immortal – a whipping flurry of hair, sweat and spittle, where the only difference is that it’s the harsh, snarling vocals of Demonaz rampaging through your battered senses, rather than Abbath’s. ‘Into Battle Ride’ is a jagged, thrusting blizzard of drums and riffs rippling with pure Norwegian brutality, while the first obvious homage to Bathory appears on the masterly ‘Gates To Blashyrkh’. Meanwhile ‘Grim and Dark’ and ‘Called to Ice’ take you back to mid-nineties Norway in the best possible corpse-painted way.

The Bathory-isms return in the mid-paced ‘Where Mountains Rise’, while the barely restrained ferocity of ‘Blacker of Worlds’ thrashes and slashes its way across the storm-ridden Scandinavian landscape. And what better way to close such a return to roots than with a nine-minute monster which boasts the title of ‘Mighty Ravendark’?

Possessing an almost amaranthine quality thanks to producer and studio bassist Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain, Lindemann) helping to create a modern yet classic sound, Northern Chaos Gods is a massively impressive comeback album which is sure to please many of the sons of Blashyrkh.

Abbath who?

9.0/10

GARY ALCOCK