Extreme Metal label maniacs over at Darkness Shall Rise Productions have been cranking out some great releases and once again they dive deep into history by taking a look at their vault for an early / mid 1990s era Black Metal in the form of two live performances by IMMORTAL. The first six tracks are taken from their show in Cologne and included the late band member Grim (Erik Brødreskift) in a rare recording of his drumming and songs from the band’s first two albums “Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism” and “Pure Holocaust”. The next nine tracks have Hellhammer (MAYHEM) on drums during his short stint with the band and include songs from the previous mentioned albums as well as songs (well a majority) from “Battles In The North”. Live albums can be tricky because you either get a very solid recording or a terrible recording that sounds like someone snuck in a tape recorder (for you youngsters that is a cassette recording device) while standing at the back of the venue. Let’s check out this live album and take a trip down memory lane at a time when IMMORTAL’s rise in the scene was just beginning to take off. Starting with the Cologne side of the songs, the production is as expected not great. The drums and especially the vocals overshadow the rest of the music. The guitars are there but just get drowned out in the mix and the bass is practically non-existent here. The crowd sounds very lively and hyped up for the show. ‘The Call Of The Wintermoon’, ‘Pure Holocaust’ and ‘Unholy Forces Of Evil’ are just to name of a few of jams on the setlist here. The Munich show is a harsher production in my opinion, all the instruments and vocals are drowned out here and you hear more of the crowd chatter during the set. The vocals and snare / cymbals of the drums still stand out and the crowd seems more rabid. This was during the bands touring efforts for the “Battles In The North” album as the setlist is dominated by songs from that era. ‘Grim And Frostbitten Kingdoms’, ‘Battles In The North’ and ‘Moonrise Fields Of Sorrow’ are just a few of the “Battles In The North” songs here. You still get pre “Battles In The North” era songs like, ‘The Sun No Longer Rises’, ‘Unsilent Storms In The North Abyss’ and ‘Blacker Than Darkness’. Final verdict: here we have a historical piece of a bygone Black Metal era. IMMORTAL are pioneers of the Norwegian Black Metal scene and this release is a time capsule of a time when the music was grim, cold and production not polished. The ‘kvlt’ term is spread around nowadays but wasn’t used back then as it was just the style of the times. While not the best live album I have heard, its nowhere near some of the garbage live albums I have heard. This one is actually not bad considering when it was recorded and the limited production equipment that was available (well, this shouldn’t be a big surprise considering that both shows aren’t official live recordings, but fan recordings – Frank). Definitely an album you want to add to your IMMORTAL collection. For more info: www.facebook.com/immortalofficial, www.facebook.com/darknessshallriseproductions