Black Metal, like pretty much every other sub-genre of extreme music, constantly sparks debates about sincerity within the genre. These kinds of debates almost always touch on some set of arbitrary rules about something as significant as songwriting or something as trivial as how the band members are dressed. One common debate I've seen on message boards and in reviews is how much "rawness" (the extent to which the recordings are made to sound intentionally lo-fi) is important to the music being "true" or sincere.
While a lot of classic black metal is very raw in its production, so what? Keeping both feet constantly in the philosophies and practices of the people who inspired you can lead to not only your own artistic stagnation but also increases the likelihood of your music sounding like a poor imitation of those bands. Which is why I'm glad this album exists.
Immortal were one of the first-wave Norwegian Black Metal bands and their early recordings were very raw but album to album the production, not to mention the musicianship and songwriting, took incredible leaps and bounds. This is my favourite of their albums and while this is undeniably a black metal LP in terms of the music, the production makes it sound as crisp and clear as Ride the Lightning! Sadly, Immortal will always be more remembered by hipsters as the band that made ridiculous music videos and wore a ton of makeup and medieval armour... at least people who actually like music for music's sake can enjoy this!
HERE
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