''Sons of Northern Darkness'' is the seventh album by Norwegian

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

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 ...

. Musically, it continues the blackened thrash metal style heard on the two previous releases ''

At the Heart of Winter ''At the Heart of Winter'' is the fifth studio album by Norwegian black metal band Immortal. It was released on February 22, 1999 through Osmose Productions. It is the first Immortal album not to feature Demonaz on guitar, as he suffered from acut ...

'' and ''

Damned in Black ''Damned in Black'' is the sixth studio album by Norwegian black metal band Immortal. It was released on March 27, 2000 through Osmose Productions, making it their last album released through their long-time collaboration with the French record la ...

''. This was the band's first release on

Nuclear Blast Records Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

and the last album to feature Iscariah on bass, who admitted to only play bass on the opening track "One by One", with the rest of the album's bass tracks being played by vocalist/guitarist

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 ...

, which is the last time he would contribute to playing bass before his departure in 2015. The album was released in multiple formats, including a standard CD, a limited edition four-panel

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 ...

, a limited edition metal box, a "Deluxe Edition" digipak with bonus DVD, a

picture disc Picture discs are gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics that extend at lea ...

, a

gatefold A gatefold cover or gatefold LP is a form of packaging for LP records that became popular in the mid-1960s. A gatefold cover, when folded, is the same size as a standard LP cover (i.e., a 12½ inch, or 32.7 centimetre square). The larger gatefo ...

double LP, and a quadruple 10" leather box. The limited edition metal box was only available via Nuclear Blast mailorder and was sold out before it was actually released. The song "In My Kingdom Cold" references the H.P. Lovecraft story ''

At the Mountains of Madness ''At the Mountains of Madness'' is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by ''Weird Tales'' editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was ori ...

''. "One by One" was featured in the soundtrack of the 8th installment in the '' Tony Hawk's'' video game series, ''

Tony Hawk's Project 8 ''Tony Hawk's Project 8'' is a skateboarding video game and the eighth installment in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in November 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, an ...

'', which released in 2006.

Track listing

Bonus DVD

Recorded with a handy cam by Achim Köhler, May 2, 2003 during the Metal Gods Tour, live at B.B. King's in New York. # "Wrath from Above" # "Damned in Black" # "One by One" # "Tyrants (Part 1)" # "Tyrants (Part 2)" # "Solarfall" # "Beyond the North Waves"

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

called it "arguably one of the best black metal releases ever put forth" and a "masterpiece".

Personnel

Abbath Doom Occulta 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 ...

– vocals, guitars, bass (tracks 2-8) *

Horgh Horgh (born Reidar Horghagen, 7 May 1971) is a Norwegian drummer, formerly for Norwegian black metal band Immortal from 1996 to 2022 and Swedish death metal band Hypocrisy from 2004 until April 2022. Career Horgh joined Immortal in 1996, bringin ...

– drums *Iscariah – bass (track 1)

Charts

References

External links

Official website

Immortal Discography

Encyclopaedia Metallum
{{Authority control Immortal (band) albums 2002 albums Nuclear Blast albums Albums produced by Peter Tägtgren