Immortal - Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism (Black Metal)

With their trademark evil Motörhead meets Helgrind hybrid, tremolo-picked angular riffing and melodic choruses, the second Bathory album - oh wait, this is Immortal. How did this turd Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism make it into the underground black metal pile?

It has shrieked vocals, sure, but everything else is a slightly sped up version of Bathory's sophomore The Return, only with more Pantera bounce and dime-store "cold-winter-is-cold" lyrical idiocy. Some of the chants come straight out of Bathory's later Viking era, and many of the melodic riffs are oddly similar to those Burzum was using on his demos a few years prior.

The tracks themselves on Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism hold up passably - by virtue of Immortal not being completely musically illiterate like Gorgoroth - but convey nothing beyond a vague gesture toward a certain type of "old school" riff technique and, in place of Bathory's total nocturnal devotion, express no greater mood than angsty confusion and a certain type of teenage "grimness" which could be summarised as "my French fries are cold, and I suffer for it".

The shrieked vocals and out of place synths add a certain unreality to the whole package but evoke more of a sense of Phil Anselmo trying to rile up the apathetic, bored and directionless than the nocturnal summoning of evil forces. When Immortal does force radical change in song dynamics or structure, always done abruptly and without any of the melodic subtlety that characterises real atmospheric black metal, it seems more of a transition to a different seat in the same room than a change in how life, or the music, is viewed.

And while witless reviewers will praise this album as a fusion of older Bathory and Norwegian black metal, what really emerges on Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism is a careful camouflaging of the same old speed metal from the 80s as the latest evil trend. The real victims here are those who had to listen to this album without getting it for free. Ignore what trendies and posers say, focus on atmosphere, structure and meaning in music. Learn from what Immortal has failed to apprehend.