''Battles in the North'' is the third studio album by Norwegian

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

band

Immortal Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film ''The Wisdom of ...

. It was released on May 15, 1995 through

Osmose Productions Osmose Productions is a French independent record label created in 1991 by Hervé Herbaut, after he had spent three years running a small mail order company. They specialize mainly in death and black metal bands. Many of the groups who began w ...

. It picks up where its predecessor, '' Pure Holocaust'', left off, featuring extreme

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

s, low-

fidelity Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of ''fealty''. Both derive from the Latin word ''fidēlis'', meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London fin ...

production, and lyrics about coldness or wintery landscapes. This is the first album where the concept of Blashyrkh becomes a central focus. It is the last album to feature

Abbath Olve Eikemo (born 27 June 1973), better known by his stage name Abbath Doom Occulta or simply Abbath, is a Norwegian musician best known as a founding member of the black metal band Immortal. Before founding Immortal, Abbath performed with Old ...

on drums.

Background

The songs "Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons" and "Circling Above in Time Before Time" reference The Underdark, a setting from ''

Dungeons and Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''. Music videos were made for "Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)" and "Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms", the latter featuring

Hellhammer Hellhammer was a Swiss metal band from Nürensdorf, active from 1982 to 1984. Although the band's sound and style were heavily criticized and poorly reviewed during their active years, they have been widely praised in retrospect and are often r ...

on drums, who also became the band's touring drummer during this period.

Release

The album was issued in multiple formats, including the standard CD, a limited edition

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case ...

, a limited edition digipak with embossed band logo and album title, cassette tape, a jewel case with slip cover, fold-out poster and bonus tracks taken from the Immortal EP (limited to 3000 copies), and a limited edition LP released under

(re-pressed six times over the years starting in 2005). The artwork on the limited slip cover CD is an original oil painting done by Jeroen van Valkenburg.

Reception

In 2009,

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

included ''Battles in the North'' in their "10 Great Black Metal Albums" list.

Track listing

Misprint

On some editions of this album, most notably on iTunes, many tracks are mislabelled. The songs play in the order shown above, but the song titles are given as follows: # "Battles in the North" # "At the Stormy Gates of Mist" # "Through the Halls of Eternity" # "Moonrise Fields of Sorrow" # "Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons" # "Throned by Blackstorms" # "Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms" # "Descent into Eminent Silence" # "Circling Above in Time Before Time" # "Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)"

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, drums,

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Demonaz –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, drums, production * Eirik Hundvin – production

References

{{Authority control Immortal (band) albums 1995 albums Osmose Productions albums