Jesus, I can't remember the last time I did a profile.
Anyways, when most people think of black metal, most people think of the church burnings and murders and the Varg X Euronymus Hell in a Cell match. While Immortal was a part of that scene, they had nothing, and wanted nothing to do with that shit. They were too busy singing about the wonderful world of Blashrykh their make believe kingdom where the sun no longer rises, dark & light don't differ, and where if you are sitting on just the right hill during sunrise, you get perfect vision of rising nordland. Also, it's fucking freezing there. So honeywell makes a killing on heaters.
So yea, Immortal is more or less one note when it comes to their lyrics, but singing about battles and freezing kingdoms is way more interesting than bleeding your soul into music (or as I like to call it, whining like a little bitch). That shit is total Manowar right there. I think they've actually toured with Manowar once or twice.
Anyways. For the first half of their career, Immortal consisted of two guys; the kayfabe twin brothers Demonaz (guitars, lyrics) and Abbath Doom Occulta (bass, vocals, guitars, occasional drums). The albums during this time were pretty typical black metal of the time, more song oriented than the droning Burzum, or the non-droning yet still kinda arty pretentious of Darkthrone. All that changed around 1998 or so, when Demonaz was diagnosed with tendopathy and his days of playing guitar were over. He still writes the bands lyrics though, and is still considered a member of the band.
So what happened next? Abbath took over on guitar. And judging from the bands first outing without him,
At The Heart of Winter he proved to be just as good, if not better than his predecessor. Soon the band got a stable touring lineup and their greatness continues to this day! (even though they broke up for about 5 years in the middle of the 00's)
Oh yes, and you can't talk Immortal without mentioning their ridiculous photoshoots:
Now you would think that these guys would be Spinal Tap fucktards that take themselves way too seriously, au contrare:
