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Immortal Souls > Under the Northern Sky > Reviews
Immortal Souls - Under the Northern Sky

A Blizzard of Melodic Metal - 80%

LarsA81, December 31st, 2022
Written based on this version: 2001, CD, Little Rose Productions (Slipcase)

The late 90’s and early 00’s saw Immortal Souls (and the rest of the Christian metal scene from Finland) on a rise. They were super productive and had released two great ep’s prior to this equally great debut album Under The Northern Sky. Immortal Souls always guaranteed fast, catch and in-your-face melodic death metal, and as the lyrics aren’t too preachy, it a wonder to me why they didn’t reach a wider audience, as they are probably one of my all time favorite melo death bands.

Right off the bat, Immortal Souls rushes through two of their greatest songs Frostmind and The Cleansing (the later already being released on the ep with the same name). It’s furiously fast melo death with tons of great riffs and groove and Aki’s recognizable raspy voice isn’t too hard to make out. You’ll be singing along in no time. This is clearly the core sound of the band, and they rarely venture further than this. Some might say that they needed to develop their sound back then, but what they did, they did so well, that I don’t mind. There are a few hints of doomier songs with more sombre lyrics, but nothing major. The third song The Cold Northwind has a slight thrash-y feel to it with lots of blast beats going on, whereas Winterheart leans a bit more towards straight up death metal. And Immortal Souls are great at changing up the feel of their songs with minor changes and grooves here and there. It does take a few spins to really notice them, as most of the time it can sound like an ongoing melo onslaught.

The album includes a few instrumentals. The acoustic and hauntingly beautiful Snowfalls. It’s fixed in the middle of the album, and is a good place to lower the tempo a bit. It’s a short song with guitar parts ABCA. The other instrumental Metsäkukkia is a traditional song sped up as a melodic metal piece. It’s an opposite piece to Snowfalls and is a none-stop blast. Both songs really shows that Immortal Souls are masters regarding their instruments and compositions and as much as I love Aki’s vocals, this album could be interesting to hear as an instrumental record. I think it would work just fine. The album closer Paintings is a longer song with doom parts, and is a great song to end the whole album with.

And Paintings is a good example of the slightly depressive lyrics that Immortal Souls often write. However, it’s the winter-themed lyrics that dominate, and often these are as much a celebration of the beautiful nature that I am sure there is in Finland, as they are a metaphor for both struggles in life as well as a humbled heart before God.

Production is good. The riffs stand clear in the mix. The bass is a bit low and the snare is a bit high, and overall it isn’t as polished as bands like Arch Enemy. I enjoy this, as I feel many melo death bands looses their aggression in the mix, but not Immortal Souls!! I would however love to hear the band include keyboards in their sound, as it should fit perfectly well with their winter-theme!

This is yet another strong recommendation to anyone into melodic death metal or people that enjoy winter-themes in their lyrics! Again, one of THE best melo death bands out there!

A shining first release. - 95%

xristoudoulos, February 20th, 2009

I have never failed to enjoy Immortal Souls. Under The Northern Sky was my first exposure to them.

I was impressed right from the beginning of the first track. The technical prowess is amazing. (True some bands are even more technically proficient, but these guys definitely know their stuff). But even more, the sense of aesthetic beauty and melody amidst the brutality is fantastic. It is one of the reasons I love this album: the combination of ability, aggression, beauty, and dynamic make it memorable and enjoyable.

Track after track, the album continues to shine with fast melodic thrash (like "Dark Night Beneath The Northern Sky," and "Frostmind"), slow and mournful lament (like "Painthings"), and variations in between, and through it all, it retains its cohesion. Full of emotion, it carries you along with it.

I have listened to this album for several years, and the melodies from it easily stay in my head even when I haven't listened to it for months. That speaks to this band's ability to craft a song.

Many would speak against the band and against this album, simply because they are Christians, and this album does have Christian themes. I would counter that the lyrics fit perfectly well with the kind of music they play. After all, who has a legitimate right to play beautiful and aggressive music more than the one who believes God created beauty, and also believes that God will aggressively punish the evil one and his servants? In a very real sense, a christian playing this kind of music makes much more sense than some pagan full of empty boast.

Christian.. - 20%

Belek, July 16th, 2005

This band is completely pathetic and ridiculous. This is an insult for true black metal hordes. Their music could be described as "black/death metal", but all they can do is love metal. Because they represent the contrary of what black metal really is.
For you to have a close idea of what I am talking about, this is a band who showed a zero % of talent and the lyrics are pretty ridiculous, talking about love, poetry, Christianity... The music is melodic technical at moments and not so badly structured with influences of Children of boodom. Their pseudo romantic, sad darky compositions totally lack personality and soul. Especially this "great" album has no intense feelings to make any impact on me. Their music is so soft and repetitive, that it makes you to fall into a deep slumber. The mediocre sound depreciating it even more. I was bored to death listening to this CD.... Let me advice, I encourage you to never buy this CD and less the others. Don’t waste your money with band like this, so don’t be fools and ignore this band....

Winter Metal - 90%

friedjelly, November 13th, 2004

Immortal Souls has dubbed their music "Winter Metal", and it is just as well they did since they have a very unique sound. The vocals are uncompromisingly death/black metal oriented, but the rest of the music kind of goes off in it's own direction. Mixing death, thrash, and prog rock, they craft wonderful music that display a great deal of talent and skill. Their music definitley stands among the best of melodic death/gothenburg metal. Their lyrics are definitely Christian, but not so 'in your face' that non-Christians can't enjoy them. If you like melodic death and would like to hear a good melodic death metal band that rocks, than Immortal Souls is for you!