I: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
ALBUM REVIEW: Norwegian Black Metal supergroup, I, released Between Two Worlds in 2006. It was one and done. At long last, it's been re-released so its true greatness can be appreciated more widely.
I: Between Two Worlds
Nuclear Blast, 2006 / Edged Circle Productions, 2025
It’s a story that now feels as old as the hills to anyone with even a passing interest in Bergen, Norway’s finest exponents of theatrically magnificent Black Metal, Immortal.
Following the success of Sons of Northern Darkness in 2002, the band took a hiatus, citing exhaustion and creative fulfillment as the reasons to put the band on hold. They were quitting at the peak of their popularity and, I guess, wondered where else they could go under the Immortal banner.
As I’ve said numerous times before, despite being their most successful album at the time - maybe still - Sons of Northern Darkness is, to my ears, Immortal’s weakest release, by some stretch. It’s too commercial-sounding, over produced and the songs feel too deliberately written with a broad audience in mind to remain appealing to me.
I actively dislike it, and yet hold every other album in their catalogue up as brilliant - each in their own way, of course.
So it was, that at their commercially triumphant zenith, they put a bow on it and stepped away. The two stalwart forces behind Immortal, Abbath and Demonaz - close friends and brothers-in-law - remained on good terms, but the band was, to all intents and purposes, on hold, if not dissolved.
This was summer 2003.
By Christmas that year, Abbath had started working on new material and had recruited Ice Dale, Enslaved’s guitarist, to assist in pre-production of the new tracks, swiftly joined by previous Immortal drummer Armagedda and Gorgoroth bassist, King Ov Hell.
Throughout 2004 and 2005, the band rehearsed and wrote the songs that would become Between Two Worlds around their other commitments - including Abbath’s stellar Motörhead tribute band of the time, Bömbers, as well as King’s involvement in the busy Gaahl-era of Gorgoroth and Dale’s hectic time with Enslaved, as that band’s elder-statesmen-of-the-scene star rose. Demonaz was called in for lyrical support on the LP too, somewhat magically, for Immortal fans.
I eventually played their only show, at Hole In The Sky, in Bergen, in August 2006, with the LP following shortly after, on Nuclear Blast, in November of that year.
A year later, in summer 2007, Abbath and Demonaz would reform Immortal - the Battle Pandas together for one more outing, culminating in the excellent - but overlooked - All Shall Fall, in 2009.
Then, following multiple tours and a live album, Abbath left for good, in 2015, kicking off his successful solo career with a self-titled LP in 2016.
Meanwhile, Demonaz had recorded his great thrashy solo LP, March Of The Norse, in 2011. He has since picked up the Immortal reigns without Abbath and released, at time of writing, two ace LPs in Northern Chaos Gods and War Against All. Both highly recommended and a great evolution of the band’s blackened thrash sound.
But I digress.
Between Two Worlds is generally acknowledged as being a great LP that didn’t reach a big enough audience upon release, mainly due to the supergroup’s other commitments/unwillingness to tour preventing an adequate amount of promotion to push it to the heights it deserved to reach.
Presumably, for that reason, it languished in the ether, as a semi-legendary release, lost to time, out of press and virtually forgotten by all but the keenest enthusiasts.
Until last year, when it was finally granted a vinyl repress by Norway’s indie metal label, Edged Circle Productions last year.
It’s now onto its second, limited repress.
As a side-note, I love the LP so much, I pre-ordered a copy from both runs.
What can I say? I’m a nerd with more money than sense, clearly.
Others will surely disagree with me, but to my ears, Between Two Worlds feels like a what direct successor to Immortal’s landmark At The Heart Of Winter could have sounded like if it had gone in a slightly more melodic direction than Damned In Black did.
Obviously, Demonaz isn’t constructing epic tales of Blashrhykh in his lyrical Eddas for this one, but musically, it resonates with me in a very similar way to that pivotal Immortal release. It has the same nagging hooks in the vocal lines, super-memorable riffs and clean production that delivers power in abundance, on a bed or articulation - no doubt due to the mixing credit of the fantastic and long-standing Immortal com padre, Peter Tâgtgren.
It’s often said that Between Two Worlds is more of a straightforward heavy metal album, but I don’t see it. Yes - there’s less tremolo riffing and blast-beats than a typical Black Metal release, but when the music is fronted by Abbath’s iconic croak, it simply can’t feel that far removed from the Immortal songbook. And it’s not as if At The Heart Of Winter is full-on Black Metal anyway; that LP heralded Immortal’s pivot to Blackened Thrash, and in many ways, Between Two Worlds continues that direction.
So the LP, in my opinion, will definitely sate the needs of those who love At The Heart Of Winter and yearn for more of that kind of thrashy blackness. Ignore the dissenting voices.
The Storm I Ride has instant addictiveness to it central riff. There’s so much instant energy, it’s impossible to not be hooked in immediately.
At first Abbath’s phrasing feels a little awkward - overly rhymed - and then it takes on a Lemmy/Motörhead air that pushes up its credibility, and you suddenly get where he’s going with it. A phased breakdown before an electrifying old school solo, with melodies for miles, inflicts itself upon your eardrums.
It punches like Tyson and glides like Bluebird.
Magical.
Warriors might be the track of the LP - if there is one - and it’s not hyperbole to suggest there may not be, because every track on here is of such high quality that picking one to rule them all isn’t easy.
Nevertheless, Warriors is another instant classic, exemplified by its presence fairly regularly in Abbath solo sets. When he croaks “It’s a great day for fire!”, you just know that in a live situation, he’s never, ever going to be yelling that alone.
Again, the riffs are mentally good. The solos are so musical and intrinsic to your enjoyment of the music that they present that rarest treat - augmentation, not ostentation. The song stays in your head and on your tongue for days afterwards - genuinely.
My internal monologue will be harping on about the Great Warrior Sleep for a week or more now. The climbing solo at the end of the song is triumphant and enigmatic. A shame it ends on a fade, but otherwise, perfect.
Title track, Between Two Worlds, has a mega-crunchy main riff and yet another singalong vocal line. Maybe the addictiveness comes from Abbath’s vocals being slightly higher in the mix and more articulate than his work in Immortal; it’s easy to make out what he’s singing, and the melodies are so pronounced, you can’t help but join in as soon as you’re familiar with it.
Structurally, there’s lots going on in addition to the verse, chorus and bridge. The song drops down to half speed halfway through its near-six-minute run-time. As it picks up again, Abbath’s slightly off-key gurgles seem to add more to the song’s energy than they would if they were flawlessly in tune. The anthemic guitar line that soars towards the final verse is an instrumental highlight of the entire LP, again, emphasised by off-key vocalisations.
They jar at first, but end up being a hook in and of themselves.
Battalions is a great thrasher that’s centred around an NWOBHM style riff that works really well against Armagedda’s double bass drums and King’s thumping bass guitar. It’s the heaviest track so far; spitting flak like a chain gun across a field of fallen infantry. It chugs, it opens up, it flies and it flares.
Not as memorable or addictive as the first three epic anthems, but the song’s harder edge give the album some worthwhile texture.
Mountains begins with softly strummed and chorused chords, leading into thumping and sparse drum rolls before kicking in with a four to the floor beat and picked main riff that has so many intricate parts to it that it’s a multi-threaded composition of its own.
The ingrained hook of the main riff - and the song itself - descends and recalls, of all things, (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone by the Monkees!
Which is definitely not to underplay the darkness it exudes.
It’s a definite highlight for me, even if only for the different playing that Abbath’s guitar work showcases throughout.
He really shows the strength of his playing and goes much further than what is usually on display in his work in Immortal. He’s a melody master. It’s such confident songwriting; Demonaz effortlessly emphasising the music with his words and Peter Tägtgren showing what an impact great production can make to already great songs. So much space in the song-scapes; the compositions genuinely breathe.
Days Of North Winds isn’t the most memorable song on the album and it’s a situation too, where Abbath’s vocals don’t quite pull off the desired effect. This time the off-key moments just sound a little too off. They don’t complement the music like they did on Between Two Worlds.
Regardless, the song is still fantastic; the nagging lead melodies picking up any harmonious slack that the vocals can’t retain. There’s a lot to love in Days Of North Winds, even if it isn’t as intrinsically memorable as other tracks on the album. There’s nothing bad about it at all.
Far Beyond The Quiet embarks upon a journey that reminds me a bit of mid-late 80s Iron Maiden. A choppy riff sits atop a hyper-melodic and pronounced, clean, bass line.
Abbath does his best Lemmy phrasing on this one; not quite reaching the high-notes but getting away with it anyway. It’s a successful mid-paced banger that creates an anthemic surge of adrenaline that you’d have to be emotionally retarded to miss or ignore.
It’s the slowest song on the album by a clear distance. It could be mistaken as a filler song, purely because of its underplayed hookiness, but play it on repeat a few times and find yourself waiting for the crashing drive of the final third - and then reap the rewards of standing by its intent, because it’s a grower, and absolutely ends up being a late-arriving highlight.
Far beyond the stillness
Where the gods no longer reign
The ice once formed the landscapes
Into mountain-sides and stains…
Epic.
The album wraps up with the peppy Cursed We Are. Another choppy thrash riff and slamming chorus that becomes the hook that distinguishes it from the other tracks on the album. It’s tracks like this that really make you feel so many opportunities were wasted by the band not touring the album properly.
Cursed We Are would be a live highlight, without doubt; it’s second chorus built for crowd participation:
Cursed we are… Eternally!
You just know that would be fun.
The different textures in the various riffing styles ensure that the album ends on a real high; splashing cymbals drop to fist-pumping breakdowns, rise to blistering solos into a final flag-waving chorus that would make Lemmy jealous.
Wünderbra.
I love Abbath and all those comrades that enable his unique brand of songwriting to be delivered with the punch it demands. It’s a self-deprecating and wry mindset that underpins the grandeur. And that’s a really compelling mix.
So compelling, in fact, that as I listen to this digitally, for ease of writing to it, the album bleeds into an automated AI decision to follow it with Sons of Northern Darkness.
There’s not much difference in the sound-stage of the two records. The Immortal record elevated though, by the quality of the I album. It’s genuinely the first time Sons has sounded good to me.
Good enough, in fact, for me to wonder if I’ve been too dismissive of it in the past.
We’ll see.
For now though, Between Two Worlds remains supreme.
In some ways a missing link in the Immortal catalogue. In other ways unique and very much its own thing.
Whichever guise it takes though, one thing’s for sure; supergroup LPs rarely live up to either their billing or the power of the names involved in them. Almost designed to prove that the sum is nowhere near as great as the individual parts. They normally stink of a marketing man’s bad idea. Not so with I. Perhaps because it came from Abbath’s artistry in the first place. Perhaps because all the players really bring something special to the event.
Whichever it is, one thing’s for sure; Between Two Worlds is a truly great LP. Not quite Black, not quite Thrash. Something just in and if itself.
Unparalleled and genuinely without peer.
The band are playing a US show this year to celebrate the reissue. It would be amazing if that turned into a tour.
I’d give my eye teeth to see the band play the album live. What an immense treat.
Between Two Worlds is a genuine classic. If you’ve not got it yet, pick it up before it’s too late.
20 years is too long to wait again for another chance to bed down with its brilliance.
Ave, Warriors! To the storm we ride!
Latter Period Immortal Bandcamp
Buy Between Two Worlds @ The Metal Collective (EU)
Its an interesting album for sure. I reference it in my book.
Whoa. Where did you hear about US shows? I cant find anything.