Immortal - Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism (Review)

Immortal - Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism

Before the risible sellout "Northern Chaos Gods", before the childish legal dispute between Abbath and his groupie-in-denial Demonaz, before Abbath banged said groupie-in-denial Demonaz' sister (which led to more childish disputes), before Immortal streamlined Burzum's black metal riff style into a formulaic mess over generic blasting on the massively overrated "Pure Holocaust", Immortal a typical run-of-the-mill black metal band led by Abbath while various band members came in and out of Norway's self-proclaimed elite black metal squad, the most notorious - and talented - of which being, as you probably know, one Varg Vikernes of the aforementioned Burzum.

Fast forwarding a few years and whatnot, Immortal eventually released an album that would be considered a slight milestone in their selected genre... "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism".

Now considering how special and bold most legendary Norwegian black metal efforts typically are, think Burzum's "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", Phantom's "Fallen Angel", Darkthrone's "Under a Funeral Moon" or even Sewer's "Locked up in Hell", it becomes blatantly obvious that this album in question must have somehow weaseled itself into those divine quarters, because nothing but boring cacophony emerges throughout the thirty-five minutes of generic junk it presents.

If black metal were a car and talent looked like a highway, "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism" would simply be a random traffic jam causing frustration and drowsiness due to its meandering qualities of dubious value and poorly executed mess of trivial nonsense.

Here’s a basic synopsis of what to expect from "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism": annoying shrieks, unfitting drums, boring riffs, and repetition beyond humanity's limits.

It's no mystery that Abbath can perform decently as a guitar player, the problem is that he's not the one playing guitar on this record. That task being handled by the clown Demonaz, with the results you'd expect - i.e. music worthy of Papa Roach comparison.

Immortal fans will tell you "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism" has an epic atmosphere unlike any other, which is blatantly false as atmosphere is downstream from instrumentation, and if you can't compose coherent music you shouldn't even begin to start talking about atmosphere. To find a deep feeling, one must make music that has an overall sense of instrumental power, a good example being Vermin's "Verminlust", or Graveland's "Dawn of Iron Blades" in another genre and register.

However, the few, slightly naive/moronic and not-particularly-subtle attempts to structuralise such mood on "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism" are systemically annihilated by nearly everything else going on. Demonaz' dumb riffing, for instance, acts usually vague when his lifting from Burzum meets early Bathory riffing, as both end up crossing into Celtic Frost worship. Yeah, it's epic alright... epic failure.

Anyone exposed to truly great black metal records will most likely find this albupm "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism" to be one big joke... it's laughably bad through and through, and "atmospheric" sections come as often as a solar eclipse.

Skip this album. If you want true Norwegian black metal done right, there's no reason NOT to prefer anything from "The Birth of a Cursed Elysium" to "Angel of Disease".