Immortal - The Seventh Date of Blashyrkh (2010)

After numerous bootlegs through the years, 'The Seventh Date of Blashyrkh' marks the first official live CD/DVD documentation from legendary Norwegian black metalers Immortal. The footage is taken from their 2007 appearance in Germany for the Wacken Open Air metal festival where they no doubt played in front of one of the biggest audiences of their career. The DVD itself is a bit on the simple side as its just the show and absolutely nothing else. Why the band or label wouldn't consider adding an interview, backstage footage, their promo videos or a myriad of other possibilities is seriously beyond me, but fortunately this particular gig is fantastic and warrants purchase regardless of the lack of extra material.

Considering the fact that the first three Immortal records feature some of my most favored black metal songs it's pleasing to see that a good portion of the songs on this live DVD are from that period. Collectively eleven songs are played and there's at least one song from every album except, 'Blizzard Beasts,' which must be the black sheep within their catalog, otherwise I have no idea why they wouldn't play any songs from it.

Anyway, after a short intro of the crowd cheering, screaming and what not the band takes the stage and kicks things off with, 'The Sun No Longer Rises' from, 'Pure Holocaust,' which is also my favorite Immortal song/album. From this point they take us forward to the absolutely crushing, 'Withstand the Fall of Time, from, 'At The Heart of Winter.' Onwards it's three songs from, 'Sons of Northern Darkness' followed by, 'Wrath from Above,' which is taken from, 'Damned in Black.' Then they turn the clock back to the first album with, 'Unholy Forces of Evil' followed by another cut from Pure Holocaust, namely, 'Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss.' Another song from At The Heart of Winter is up next followed by two of their mightiest songs, 'Battles in the North' and finally, 'Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)' to conclude their performance.

As far as visuals and sound are concerned I can honestly say this DVD is absolutely pristine and in the week that I've owned this DVD I've already thrown it on a few times and blasted it at unnaturally high volumes. The camera work is perfect and you get to see the band from basically every angle imaginable. Likewise front man Abbath is fun to watch because he goofs around a bit at times, occasionally playing the guitar while standing on one leg and also he's got the Gene Simmons mannerisms down pretty damn well too. His in-between talk is limited and he spares no expense at living up to the classic Immortal corniness by talking in a strange voice when addressing the crowd or just taunting them at times with hopes of getting them to rouse up further.

As far as the concert is concerned this is surely one of the better performances I've witnessed, but again I do wish some extras had been included. If you're a long time fan of Immortal you'll definitely want to pick this baby up soon and even if you're new to them I'm quite sure you'll find something you'll appreciate while watching this massive gig.