Immortal Tony Pijar
Blender Theatre
New York City, New York
19 February 2011
Immortal is one of the most important black metal bands to date. Add Burzum, Mayhem, and Emperor to that list too. Of course, no band comes close to the mighty Venom who started this diabolical sub-genre of metal. Immortal, on a wave of bleak, black wind, blew into New York City on a cold, gusty evening and was greeted with a sold out audience. In fact, I’ve never seen the Blender Theatre so packed – there was truly an unsettling feeling at the venue.
Immortal hit the stage adorned in ghoulish black apparel and corpse painted faces. There is something very real about Norwegian black metal bands, an aura of evil that is pervasive; Immortal has that feel. “All Shall Fall,” the title track off their latest studio release set the tone for the evening; a fast, maniacal tune that immediately sent the masses into hyper-hysteria. The last time I saw a crowd this frenzied was a couple of years ago at Amon Amarth. For a three piece, the band laid out a blur of white noise, especially on the likes of “The Rise of Darkness,” “Damned to Black”, “Hordes to War”, and “Solarfall.” Abbath ripped on his guitar while grinding out that guttural trademark growl, while bassist Apollyon was menacing especially when he grabbed at those strings shaking the hearts of those brave enough to get close to the stage, and Horgh pounded relentlessly on his kit. The set list took the best parts of their latest releases, “All Shall Fall” and “Sons of a Northern Darkness” and, of course, they were immense in their delivery. The encores were “Blashyrtka” and “The Sun no Longer Rises”.
Although they’re not really up there on my favorite bands list, I could certainly appreciate what I witnessed at the Blender. There are so many pretenders out there, but Immortal is truly black metal royalty.
