Every fortnight, we check in with all things heavy on RTRFM’s Critical Mass show.
The trend of bands splitting, fracturing, fighting over naming rights and eventually forming a new project continues into 2016. Entombed, Gorgoroth, Venom and way too many more. Now Immortal join that group. On the plus side, occasionally these splits produce more motivated, energised performances from both sides of the split with something to prove.
While not the first offshoot of Immortal (the ‘I’ project rocked out with one album in 2006 and guitarist/lyricist Demonaz released a solo album in 2011) Abbath is/was arguably the main corpse-painted face and voice of Immortal, with his croaky rasp, multi-instrumental talents and surprisingly funny stage demeanor. So while the split is unfortunate, Abbath has moved on and fired the first shot with a two-track 7?.
‘Count The Dead’ opens with some fairly catchy black’n’roll that was seeping into the last few Immortal albums. At the two minute mark they shift gears and head in a faster direction, pounding drums and a widdly guitar solo round out the song. A catchy tune with awesome production that leaves me wanting to hear the self-titled album due for release at the end of January.
The B-side is a cover of Judas Priest’s ‘Riding On The Wind’. It’s a pretty fun, slightly silly cover that sounds way more like Motörhead than Judas Priest, but that is right up Abbath’s alley as he has played in Motörhead tribute band Bombers since 1996.
Critical Mass airs every Wednesday from 9PM (GMT+8) on RTR FM 92.1 in Perth, Australia.
