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Rating: In 1999, Immortal delighted us with one of the most beautiful black albums of all time. A chilling masterpiece of aggression and traces of musical poetry.
At the Heart of Winter. It almost seems like an anthem to the icy winds of their lands. It's like an anthem to the cold and frost. Not only in the environmental sense, but almost physically. A frost turned into music, turned into pure and simple art. I think no black metal band has ever achieved such a level of expressiveness, sadness, desolation, and bewilderment, of complete frost. It seems that every single note was conceived with a cold snowflake in our ears. Forget the early Immortal, with the outbursts of musical violence and allergy to melody: this album overflows with excellent innovations, with unexpected melodic openings that strengthen the winter I feel every time I listen to them.
But in its apparent and sweet coldness, it reveals itself to be almost as devastating as a storm. Never has a black album been so symbolic for me, to the point of evoking such absurdities. But it's all true, right from the opener "Withstand The Fall Of Time", with that intro that makes you shiver. The glaciality is at its highest levels, even in the vocal parts, where Abbath gives his best. I didn't think that after Demonaz's departure a similar masterpiece could emerge, yet this reality is confirmed already with the second track "Solarfall", which seems almost an omen of an endless winter, just like "Tragedies Blows At Horizon" seems to evoke the descent of snow-covered darkness. Even the titles seem symptomatic of this incredible snow that overwhelms me at the listening of such majesty. I cannot remain objective in front of such frozen and crystallized beauty, and so I continue to venture into the storm with "When Dark & Light Don't Differ" and feel the darkness engulf me. But I really reach the peak of amazement with "At the Heart of Winter". An absolute masterpiece, this song, an anthem to glaciality. There is still room for the last blade of ice in the shoulder, to then turn off the stereo shivering and try to recover from what has been heard.
Cold, glacial, snowy. This album will not fail to move you, amaze you, shock you. And you will see that the winter I felt and that many have felt will captivate you too.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Withstand the Fall of Time (08:29)
Darker and darker skylines of red grew my horizon
On the edge of my vision a giant grimfaced realm...
Flaming suns crested the horizon shadows born a cloudless day
Believers of the rise and set of the moon darkened twilight into night
Hardening claws of cold tell me we are closer to colder times
Through the days of bitterness still the tundra lay untouched
In the final of that day and all centuries after
In eternity and time the same still the tundra lay untouched
Blacker and blacker blinded by shades from centuries behind
Shadows of a dark that used to be under heavy winters reign...
The blackening sky never end as we stand the fall of time
Yet winds of cold will always blow without tomorrow...
Hardening claws of cold tell me we are closer to colder times
Through the days of bitterness still the tundra lay untouched
In the final of that day and all centuries after
In eternity and time the same still the tundra lay untouched
02 Solarfall (06:02)
Believe the sea high waves upon our coming storm
Hear the roaring tide as we name a dawn
See the ice in which we craft our souls
Earth's frozen cries the dark benight your kind
Monstruosly the seas rage afar as if to hide from that which nears
Skyward from the seasalt air our vision knew a giant fall
See the ice in which we craft our souls
Life's frozen cries the dark benight your kind
A place of utterness beyond the wilderness
Through a darkened terrain that fades in emptiness...
Walkers of the dust survivors of the blast
Slowly they move but far behind all time into the solar fall...
Believe the sea high waves upon our coming storm
Hear the roaring tide as we name a dawn
Monstruosly the seas rage afar as if to hide from that which nears
Skyward from the seasalt air our vision knew a giant fall
See the ice in which we craft our souls
All frozen cries the dark benight your kind
The last sunset flame dust of ice drifts the earth
Lightning plays in depths of no rebirth...
03 Tragedies Blows at Horizon (08:55)
A black day dawn at horizon where winter hearts our battlefields
The ultimate frostage desire snowflurry drifts these plains
Since the blast of primaries we've conquered against the storm
Throning with will and the sound of battle never ends...
Tragedies blows at horizon: we ride as one our battle rages on...
Tragedies blows at horizon: we die as one our battle rages on...
Thundering columns of fire majestic against the breeze
Gleaming my scepter at hand the wind altogether silent
Frozen of heart awaken from a time and risen
By the dying evening breeze the sound of battle never ends
Tragedies blows at horizon: we ride as one our battle rages on...
Tragedies blows at horizon: we die as one our battle rages on...
05 At the Heart of Winter (08:00)
Greatest Blashyrkh wait for me your deepest realms I'll find
With songs that sound eternally for you my call is ever so strong...
Winterlandscapes pure and clear a walk into the glacial valleys
Deep under forests alive only my torches fire light...
Greatest Blashyrkh waiting me your realms ever splendid
Songs were made eternally the call is ever so strong...
Blashyrkh mughty be your name victorious a kingdom we made
With strength and pride all the way you are the heart of winter...
As the face of a glacier your mountains tower against the sunset
Unforgetting what was made a bond so strong and ever so real...
The statue watches the kingdom your giant wings make all beneath
I'm staring forth the Raventhrone I know I'm at the heart of winter...
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Other reviews
By Rainbow Rising
At The Heart Of Winter remains an album of absolute value, which did not betray the past while at the same time succeeded in opening the group up to new sounds.
The piece lasts eight minutes and is supported by a classic metal riff—yet another demonstration of how to renew a winning formula without betraying one’s origins.
