I
Between Two Worlds

Will the days of the North wind come? Listening to the eleven painful metallic slaps from the Viking Olve "Abbath" Eikemo, it seems there is no doubt.

The titanic axe-man and infamous screamer from Immortal presents himself with this solo project named I, four years after the well-known "Sons Of Northern Darkness" from which some peculiarities are skillfully extracted. Backed by a group of renowned musicians, solid and deadly in execution, he spits furious anthology riffs, crushing rhythms, and abrasive screams combined with the putrescent buzzing typical of Norwegian metal.

Guitars dipped in the most desolate and rickety rock'n'roll pay homage to Motörhead in the wild opening of "The Storm I Ride", interspersed with extremely catchy leads and a precise and clean solo (Isdal being very effective, a truly classy musician). But it is with "Warriors" that the torment begins, with the sinister Quorthon-like riff cutting the air to launch an "epic" thrash metal with a disruptive impact, the rhythms grind the listener like the tracks of a frenzied tank, and Abbath lashes out with a rabid and screeching voice from his decayed throat. Again, the harmonies chosen by the soloist "Ice Dale" embrace us, furious and emotional, for a melancholic and deliberately 80s finale as the Os thrasher so pleases.

We ascend the cable car to Galdhøpiggen (an arduous peak of the Scandinavian Highlands) with "Mountains", whose initial arpeggio makes us tremble with nostalgia for the distant "At The Heart Of Winter". Yet another hurricane of super-inspired riffs, a combative crescendo stuffed with "old-school" references in guitar use, and pride in the damned vagabond singing of Olve.

We enter the kingdom of shadows with "Days Of North Winds", the accursed opening riff sends shivers down the spine, filling the eyes with tears amid barren landscapes and forgotten sterile lands. Dirty, hoarse, Abbath's tone drags us through pagan cathedrals, the groove of metallic axes rises irresistibly and culminates in Arve's umpteenth harmonic masterpiece of Enslaved fame. The vertigo...

The fog clears over the hills of Bjørnefjörd, the figures of solitary warriors become reality in the lilting "Far Beyond The Quiet", dedicated to the guiding spirit of extreme Northern European rock Quorthon, a wall of melodies swollen with epicness marries rhythms between doom and Teutonic thrash. Another heartfelt and misty arpeggio launches the defiance of proud notes and sharp solos before the tone of the six-string mutters the last shrieks.

Swept away by the blind fury of "Cursed We Are", dominated by a breathtaking riffing combined with the chorus that makes us shout fiercely dancing on the fresh snow, we enter the funerary atmospheres of "Shadowed Realms". And, gentlemen, here to dominate is indeed Abbath's imprecise, virile, and disdainful throat, taking us back to the days of old Immortal! Melodies like tremblings caused by the wind through maples, not whispers but shouts, noble and mournful guitar moods, the doors of the North open... and the warrior's journey on the hill ends.

"Between Two Worlds" is metal to its core, it is the album that will make you young rebels and dreamers again. Sink your ears into nostalgia, the past of a musical genre lives among the grim and granitic notes of this work!