A really, really great album of raw black metal by Immortal.
They hit the black metal scene like a meteor with their second LP Pure Holocaust.
The best single element is definitely the drumming, which is just superb, incredibly fast
and with some variation, too (enough for black metal, personally). I'm just annoyed by the
fact that I really don't know who did the drumming!!
Most people say it was Abbath who was behind the kit when recording, but there's also
statemets that it couldn't be him. Nevertheless, Abbath's vocal performance is great,
exactly as it should be in black metal. Some say his voice is annoying on this album, for me
it isn't. Demonaz does his job very well as well, not anything complex (as expected
in ol' skool black) but the riffing is fast and very effective, and there's both maniac fast
and slow, evil riffs.
Still, it's purely the songwriting and atmosphere that are the best things. And that's what
counts, especially in black metal. Album loses its half a point for being a little too
short. While I have nothing against short (excellent) albums, but some songs could've been a
tiny bit longer. It's still great that the band didn't include anything even medicore
material on the album just to make it longer.
4.5/5
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