Immortal - Battles In The North LP

If you whine about Abbath's sloppy drumming, you have not been paying attention to anything in your entire empty life. THIS is how you compose, play and record black metal drumming. Inhuman, wild, nuanced, straight, mysterious, full of action, spirit, valor and observant ornaments. The constant hammering of the bass drums is a work of art in itself, like a shadowy motor of a cursed and gentle locomotive between your veins. Every blast album I ever listen to has to stand up to the savage frosty whirlwind on this album. Most of them fail miserably because they have no real sense for speed and dynamics.

Like Bolt Thrower, Immortal have stumbled upon one of the simplest formulas imaginable, made it their own and have never been copied successfully. There is not even someone out there today that sounds like Abbath. How is that still possible after all these years? It is pure magic, a testament to the rebellious human fist in the ass of god and so much more than angry young music made by angry young men. It is a dream about a glacier in the sun. Far away from sorrow and at peace with pain. It is eternal.
- Mikesch Lord via Metal Archives