No matter the time of year, it’s always winter for Norwegian black metal legends Immortal. Feeling nice and warm and looking forward to summer? Don’t be silly. Just one listen to the latest album War Against All (Nuclear Blast) will have you pining for the fjords and wishing the world was a dark, grim, and frostbitten kingdom of cryptic winter storms.
All good things come to an end, and as of March 2015, the legendary Black Metal double act of Abbath Doom Occulta (real name Olve Eikemo) and Demonaz Doom Occulta (real name Harald Nævdal) reached its disappointing and unfortunate conclusion. For years, Demonaz had acted the straight man, a perfect foil for his gurning, crab-walking, tongue-waggling partner, but since the pair went their separate ways, he has now chosen to step forward and take centre stage in what appears to be a more focused and serious vision of Immortal.Continue reading
Abbath, the namesake band led by the iconic ex-Immortal front man of the same name (Olve Eikemo (a.k.a. Abbath) will see its début album release this coming January from Season of Mist. Abbath made its live début this past June at the Tuska Festival in Helsinki, FI. At that concert Abbath played two new songs, some Immortal classic and even some black metal covers. The band has already been named as one of the headliners of the all Norwegian lineup of Blastfest 2016.
Abbath’s current line-up
Abbath – Vocals/ Guitar
King Ov Hell (Tom Cato Visnes) Bass
Baar Kolstad (God Seed/Borknagar) Drums
This July Abbath unsuccessfully bid to secure the rights to the Immortal Band name in Norwegian court but lost to his former bands mates; lyricist/guitarist Demonaz (real name Harald Nævdal) and drummer Horgh (real name Reidar Horghagen). Abbath recently gave an interview to Metal Hammer about the split and going solo:
“I didn’t want to go solo in the first place. I wanted the best for Immortal. I didn’t want it to end this way. First of all, I just wanted my music out. I wanted to record the [next] album [because] it’s been so many years since ‘All Shall Fall’. And both Demonaz and Horgh, they have kids and families now, and it just hit that point where I couldn’t work the way they wanted to work any more. I wanted things on my terms and they wanted things on their terms, and it was very difficult.”
“I wanted to rehearse at least three times a week, but often it was only once a week and things went so slow. I sat there with all this material, I kept the rehearsal space and recorded the stuff on click track, but it was a very strained atmosphere and the Last time we worked together was in early June last year.”
Asked if the decision to part ways and seek out new band members was inevitable, Abbath said: “I was forced to do it this way. I wanted Immortal to continue, but not the way it was. The dialogue has not been there and it’s also my mistake. I should have brought up this shit a long time ago, but Immortal, after Demonaz‘s problems with his arms, it never became a band after that.”
He continued: “Immortal is a very special situation. [Demonaz] hasn’t been in the band, but then I always wanted to do the best for everybody, to have the band spirit, and that’s why when we decided to start Immortal again, we tried to get the spirit back, and bring him on tour, and just share our thing and be a band and have a kick-ass time. But it never worked out. The chemistry wasn’t there with the Immortal guys and hadn’t been for a while.”
“I believe in my music and I believe in my expression, but time flies and we grow apart. Maybe in the future we can go back again, I don’t know, but right now I just want to do my thing and just be Abbath and have people around me who support that.”