After frontman and primary songwriter Abbath very publicly exited Immortal in 2015, the remaining members of the band are about to enter the studio to record their first record without Abbath at the helm in January. Says the band:

IMMORTAL starts recording their new album in Abyss Studio in January 2017!

IMMORTAL will start recording their ninth album in January 2017.

“The songs have been ready for some time, but we wanted to record it at the right place and time. We will once again work with Peter Tägtgren at Abyss Studio who produced our four last albums. The band will enter the studio during wintertime to have the right atmosphere.

We look forward to record and present the new album to the IMMORTAL hordes sometime in 2017.

The tracks that will appear on the album are: ‘Northern Chaos Gods’, ‘Into Battle Ride’, ‘Gates To Blashyrkh’, ‘Blacker Of Worlds’, ‘Where Mountains Rise’, ‘Grim And Dark’, ‘Called To Ice’, and ‘Ravendark’.

Blashyrkh, December 2016

Demonaz and Horgh

Tagtgren’s involvement is certainly a good sign; he’s a longtime collaborator and an all-around great producer. That being said, Demonaz – who is now officially fronting the band – has been unable to play guitar since 1997 due to acute tendon damage, and this will be his first recorded performance since 1997’s Blizzard Beasts. Although he’s contributed a great deal of lyrics for Immortal since then, how the material will fare remains to be seen with such a major reconfiguration to the lineup. Immortal supposedly had a full record of music finished, but had to start over once Abbath jumped ship and supposedly co-opted that material for his self-titled solo record.