Ranking the Studio Albums: Immortal (w/John McEntee) 

At the Heart of Winter is imo just a top tier metal album regardless of "black metal" or whatever genre of metal, it's just pure metal and glorious.

It would be a lot of fun to see you guys rank the Incantation albums 🤘🏼😆

My Immortal ranking: 1. Sons of Northern Darkness 2. At the Heart of Winter 3. Battles in the North 4. Pure Holocaust 5. Damned in Black 6. Northern Chaos Gods 7. All Shall Fall 8. Blizzard Beasts 9. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism

Maybe I’m the only one, but I love listening to John McEntee talk with Pete even though I’m not yet a strong fan of black or death or other extreme metal. John’s commentary and critique is always interesting. And the mid-show rant in this episode was spot on for most any musician or band proving once again the quality of SoT programming and the watchability of most any episode. Thanks, John, for your time and we await your return to SoT. And, as always, thanks Pete!

Came for the Immortal album ranking, stayed for the Ozzy career retrospective. Lol. John seems like a great guy to talk music with.

Could listen to John and Pete forever, such mature and knowledgeable. And great to see you guys always having a smile on your faces.

Always love these episodes with John, he has these interesting side stories every time. Please bring him back for a Marduk ranking 👌

Here is my ranking: 1. Sons of the Northern Darkness 2. At the Heart of Winter 3. Northern Chaos Gods 4. Battles in the North 5. Blizzard Beasts 6. Pure Holocaust 7. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 8. Damned in Black 9. All Shall Fall

What a nice guy John is! Honest, self-reflecting, critical. I really enjoyed this Pete, great discussion!

Had never listened to Incantation before- great band and John is a great guest!

Great show as always thanks John for your insight and thanks to Pete for his tireless efforts to bring the best guests on to discuss music,now hearing that John is a big manowar fan would be interesting to hear him rank their catalog a death metal legend discussing a pure heavy metal band ,I think that would be awesome and I bet very entertaining,anyways keep up the great work

Pure Holocaust is my favourite Immortal album! At the Heart Of Winter comes in at a close second!

My opinion is that John McEntee knows his stuff of course. despite me not having the same taste and point of view as him on certain bands and production topics. He's on another level. You can tell the guy in red hasn't been part of the black and death metal underground, and the 2 people are on different levels of understanding, especially after discovering them in the 2000s. McEntee is really polite and he's nice.

Could listen to you guys talk Immortal all day long! Battles in the North is my favorite 🤘🏼

Absolutely loved this video! A man of John’s wisdom and stature in metal is always a fun watch/listen. Hail Incantation!

This was awesome. Very well done and Incantation Rules!! Would love to see one on Kreator, Sodom, & Destruction

My favorite black metal band, great discography. My ranking: 1. Sons of Northern Darkness 2. At the Heart of Winter 3. Pure Holocaust 4. Battles in the North 5. Damned In Black 6. Northern Chaos Gods 7. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 8. All Shall Fall 9. Blizzard Beasts

.at the heart of winter .one of the greatest CDs of all time.! Beyond word's amzballs .!!

One of the best shows i've seen here, and that says a lot. 1,5 hour went faster than a great footballmatch for me (love football). I also think it adds another layer to the ranking that you two often have "opposite" points of view of what good music are - in the first place (as I understand it), but as far as I can see you totally understand eachother anyway. And then - viewers can get more out of this because it brings two different perspectives (to the table) and every viewer can identify with the one they agrees most with in the first place. I simpy loved this show, and I hope John soon will be back. He brins so much to the table, and goes so so deep down in the layers. One becomes aware of many new thoughts when you listen to him. And Pete, you are as alwas great. What a human being! Love your shows! At last - parden my language, i have not english as my first language, but i hope you understand my point anyway. I do not write a lot in the comments, but this time I "had to" because it was outstanding in my opinion.

Immortal is definitely my favorite black metal band. Very creative and fierce! 😈🤘

Have to say that Abbath's drumming on Pure Holocaust is quite competent.

Great show, could listen to you guys all night. Would be cool to listen to John McEntee naming his top 10 black metal albums.

John and Pete agree its great when you discover a band maybe in the beginning from an album that peaks your interest and then discover the back catalogue.

Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, Pure Holocaust and Sons of Northern Darkness are amazing albums.

I always come back to "Battles in the North". It's the first (second wave of) Black Metal I bought with Marduk (Opus Nocturne), and I really like the fact that those albums are still very close to Venom or Bathory and not too polished (as Immortal would get) or punkish (Dark Throne). Those 2 albums are, for me, quintessential Black Metal, they feel so cold and raw!

And we also need a show on Marduk with more guests. They're probably the only second wave black metal band to release better albums now than they did in the early '90s.

Awesome show 🤘🤘 1. At the Heart of Winter 2. Sons of Northern Darkness 3. Pure Holocaust 4. Battles in the North 5. Blizzard Beasts 6. Northern Chaos Gods 7. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 8. Damned in Black 9. All Shall Fall Pretty hard to rank these, Immortal is definitely in my top 5 black metal bands as well! Abbath’s solo stuff is great too, his first album was actually my gateway to Immortal.

1. At The Heart of Winter 2. Sons of Northern Darkness 3. Damned In Black 4. Battles In The North 5. All Shall Fall 6. Northern Chaos Gods 7. Pure Holocaust 8. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 9. Blizzard Beasts As an aside, every time I see John speak or have an interview he always seems like such a nice guy

No bad album in this discography! Fun show! 9. All shall fall 8. Blizzard Beasts 7. Diabolical Fullmoon mysticism 6. Sons of Nothern Darkness 5. Damned in Black 4. Nothern Chaos Gods 3. Pure Holocaust 2. Battles in the North 1. At the Heart of Winter

Great rankings love hearing these getting a in depth look. Really entertaining! Cheers 🍻

About what you guys say about Marduk: I had the privilege to work for them a little bit, and those guys were totally scary! I mean they're soooo into their thing, so extreme in everything they do, it's scary! Not only the music, but the light-show and the stage presence and the attitude off stage. Totally unique, and I've worked with a few bands, but none gave me that feeling of "living their thing" so much and so profoundly. It felt almost unreal!

I also came into Immortal in the early 2000's . Agree with Pete Enslaved are my favourite black metal band to.

Immortal is one of my favorites in black metal and they have a solid and consistent discography. Here's my ranking: 9. All Shall Fall 8. Blizzard Beasts 7. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 6. Northern Chaos Gods 5. Pure Holocaust 4. Damned in Black 3. Sons of Northern Darkness 2. Battles in the North 1. At the Heart of Winter

9. All Shall Fall 8. Battles In The North 7. Pure Holocaust 6. Damned In Black 5. Blizzard Beasts 4. Northern Chaos Gods 3. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 2. At The Heart Of Winter 1. Sons Of Northern Darkness

Great show John and Pete! I've been chipping away at the Immortal catalog lately. This will give me more direction on what to check out / re-listen to next.

John is a legend! Love this dude. My favorite Immortal albums are Pure Holocaust, At the Heart of Winter, & Battles in the North (no order). Love the early albums but agree the debut isn’t great. Oh & also: John wearing a MORBOSIDAD shirt!!

I really enjoyed this one. Thanks for ranking their albums! Big fan of SoT and Immortal.

Great show! Looking forward to the Incantation show on Rock fantasy! 🍻

I feel you should mention some demonaz and abbath solo stuff. It's a huge part of the immortal sound.

Congratulations John to you and your wife best wishes awesome news 👏❤❤❤❤💛💛🧡🧡

1. At the Heart of Winter 10/10 2. Battles in the North 9/10 3. Sons of Northern Darkness 8/10 4. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 8/10 5. Damned in Black 8/10 6. Blizzard Beasts 7/10 7. Pure Holocaust 7/10 8. Northern Chaos Gods 7/10 9. All Shall Fall 6/10

I think at heart of winter, is one of my favorite albums by them. I’m almost mixture rankings between them. I’m only 29 years old.

1. Pure Holocaust 2. At the Heart of Winter 3. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 4. Battles in the North 5. Damned in Black 6. Northern Chaos Gods 7. Sons of Northern Darkness 8. Blizzard Beasts 9. All Shall Fall

My ranking 1. Sons of Northern Darkness 2. Pure Holocaust 3. At The Heart of Winter 4. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 5. Battles In The North 6. Damned In Black 7. All Shall Fall 8. Northern Chaos Gods 9. Blizzard Beasts

Wow, I missed this episode. John's a legend.

Enjoyable conversation between you two. Checked out Incantation's 'Onward To Golgotha', having heard Of the band many times but not yet heard, & fucking loved it!- Really hit the spot for something that I wanted to hear done more often in death metal & was searching for. My list: 1. Sons Of Northern Darkness 2. Damned In Black 3. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 4. All Shall Fall 5. Pure Holocaust 6. Battles In The North 7. At The Heart Of Winter 8. Blizzard Beasts 9. Northern Chaos Gods ...but I adore them all. Hard to pick.

My ranking 🇳🇴 Battles in the North "Hell Yeah John" Pure Holocaust Blizzard Beasts Northern Chaos Gods At Heart of Winter Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism Damned In Black Sons of Northern Darkness All Shall Fall

I love Pete but Immortal's debut is legendary. It's savage!

What the Fuuuuck?!? I've recently discovered your channel and have been going through past episodes and have a feel for what to expect and what most of you and your co-hosts favor.....and then here comes an Immortal ranking with McEntee!!! Very nice and unexpected. 👍👍. Battles was my first cd by them and it’s still my favorite. I bought that unfolding all white cd sleeve when it first was released and was like, what is this?!? Sons is second for me personally. Side note. Not a huge black metal fan, but I saw Watain in ft. Lauderdale before the virus and holy shit, that was an amazing show.

1. Sons Of Northern Darkness 2. Battles In The North 3. At The Heart Of Winter 4. Pure Holocaust 5. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticisim 6. The Rest. P.S. I - Between Two Worlds, is underrated af!

My picks At the heart of winter Sons of northern darkness Northern chaos gods All shall fall Damned in black Diabolical full moon mysticism Battles in the north Pure holocaust Blizzard beasts

My rating: 1. Sons of Northern Darkness 2. Battles in the North 3. Damned in Black 4. At the Heart of Winter 5. Northern Chaos Gods 6. Pure Holocaust 7. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 8. Blizzard Beasts 9. All Shall Fall

Ohh,what a band. For me "ALL SHALL FALL" is their ultimate music masterpiece.

Another great episode. Looking forward to seeing Incantation again in Seattle. The last tour (with Morbid Angel and I believe Dark Funeral?) was killer.

Love Sons of Northern Darkness and In The Heart of Winter!

Thanks guys. I need to check out Son's of Northern Darkness. Hey Pete how bout something on The Obsessed or any of Winos projects.

I love emperor first two emperor albums. I like brutality and beauty.

Great video, as always! My picks are: 1. Heart of Winter. One of the best metal albums of all time IMO. 2. Pure Holocaust 3. Sons of Northern Darkness 4. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 5. Battles in the North 6. Blizzard Beasts 7. Northern Chaos Gods 8. All Shall Fall 9. Damned in Black

7th John has been watching too many Martin Popoff videos, but it just shows when people listen to these albums and what they listen to, I'm more into thrash but love Damned in Black, with At the Heart of Winter, and Pure Holocaust as my top 3.

NO DISRESPECT AT ALL, but John reminds me of a LOT of the metal heads that were slightly older than me (I'm 40) that I hung out with (and was influenced by) as I really got into metal in the 90's. The hardcore metal community in general HATED (myself included) anything that smelled remotely like a sellout during that time. Looking back I'm sure this was really driven by Metallica "betraying their metal fans" from the black album going forward, and then with so many other bands like Megadeth, Slayer, Fear Factory, Carcass, and Sepultura trying to broaden their appeal with more radio friendly songs or a more nu-metal influenced approach. Over time we have seen many of these bands go back to what they do best and fans today tend to be a little more open to bands trying different things, but man, that metal "elitism" and "that's not metal enough, f-those guys" attitude was very prevalent during that time!

At the heart of winter, Sons of northern Darkness, and Damned in Black are 3 of the greatest Metal albums of all time.

John seems like the kind of guy who orders a grilled cheese at every restaurant.

I enjoy all of the Immortal Albuma lot. In my Opinion Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism is the most Dark Evil Immortal album, and as Awesome as all the albums are, they never had the atmosphere that the first album captured. The first 3 are like a Trilogy for me. At the same time the later albums are just as great in a different way.

That was a looong ranking show! But good! your lists where very diffrent from each others, which is cool. My top 3 are; Pure Holocaust, At The Heart Of Winter and Sons Of Northen Darkness - would be hard to pick between them for me. As a swede (swedish is pretty similar to norweigan) it's funny when people pronounce their names "A Bath" and "Demon Ass" :D I remember hearing Incantation at a friends house a long time ago, I recall enjoying it - Will check 'em out again!

When I really jumped in again, I went right to the first album and came around after a few weeks. Not my favorite, but I love it. 1. Battles in the North 2. At the Heart of Winter 3. Sons of Northern Darkness 4. Pure Holocaust 5. Blizzard Beasts 6. Diabolical Full Moon Mysticism 7. Northern Chaos Gods (love it, great comeback, but I do agree with John in that it meanders a bit) 8. Damned in Black 9. All Shall Fall I really enjoy Prog, riffs, technicality and epic moments . . So my second thru fifth may make more sense with that descriptive lens.

Can you two fellas do a top 10 death or black metal albums

I’m only familiar with 3 albums from Immortal. After I heard Damned in Black I kinda fell off the radar. So my top 3 Immortal albums are as follows: 3. Battles in the North ‘95 2. At the Heart of Winter ‘99 1. Blizzard Beasts ‘97 Awesome episode!

Do Bathory and Watain

1. At the heart of winter 2. Battles in the north 3. Damned in black 4. Sons of northern darkness 5. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 6. Pure Holocaust 7. Northern chaos gods 8. All shall fall 9. Blizzard Beasts

My number one Black Metal band... glad to see them live twice at Tuska Festival, Kaisaniemi, Helsinki 2007 (their first gig ever in Finland) and 2009. Abbath was the man! "Suomi Finland, PERKELE!!... and fuck the sun!!" He shouts... 😆 hard to ranking, they're all great albums but here it is; 1) Sons of Northern Darkness 2) Battles In the North 3) At the Heart of Winter 4) Pure Holocaust 5) All Shall Fall 6) Northern Chaos Gods 7) Damned In Black 8) Blizzard Beasts 9) Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism. Cheers from Finland!

Love all Immortal! The latest one Northern Chaos Gods is a masterpiece! Grim and Dark what a good track!

You really have to review Dordeduh new album har . It's can be described as atmospheric avant garde black ,folk ,prog .One of 2021 hightlights for sure .the new Thy catafalque album vadak is amazing .a blend of prog metal, black metal ,jazz ,prog, electronica,folk etr... As far as Immortal sons of northern darkness and at the heart of winter are both favorites. Keep the great work bro !

I've been watching mostly the prog and 70s hard rock discographyr anking videos and not left too many comments yet, so I feel kind of strange picking ou this one, but hey, it's a band whose discography I *am8 familiar with all the way through. Anyway, cool video, and really nice guest appearnace from jon! I just have to say something. Yes, music is subjective and I'm not questioning your rankings at all (they are yours after all and I understand them) But Pete...when you are in the mood and have time..listen to Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism again. I dont' want to change your mind on the ranking, but listen "past" the production. That album is not fast, especially compared with what came after. I'm not even sure they were *capable* of playing very fast at that early point. The bulk of the album is mid-paced 'n' marching, like the slow(er) songs on Bathory's 1988 album blood Fire Death. There are faster parts of course but it's nothing like the speed on the next three or even Abbath-guitar-led albums. Not criticising, just saying -- the real "full speed ahead" albums are Battles in the North or maybe Pure Holocaust. DFM is definitely not a mature album but they were aiming for epic triumph and not aggression, i think.

1) Battles in the North 2) Pure Holocaust 3) At the Heart of Winter 4) Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism 5) Blizzard Beasts 6) Sons of Northern Darkness 7) Northern Chaos Gods 8) All Shall Fall 9) Damned in Black

Best Black Metal band.

Abbath is one of the best BM frontmens, intresting video =)

For me I like a lot of the Non-Scandinavian Black Metal bands such as Blasphemy, Beherit, Archgoat, Necromantia, Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Mystifier along with many others. Not that there is anything wrong with Scandinavian Black Metal in fact it's actually quite good but I can't help but feel that it's overrated and that some of it isn't as heavy or satanic sounding as the bands I mentioned above and the non-norwegian bands were just as important to black metal in terms of innovation and originality. Not sure how you feel about it John. Would like to know what your thoughts are on what I just mentioned.

They are ok , sounds good

i may have not listened enough to certain albums, to give them a fair shot. But Blizzard Beasts is the only one that i really like, and that seems to separate itself enough from generic black metal. At The Heart of Winter definitely has some nice songwriting, but i felt too ambivalent about it to say that i really like it. it's pleasant enough i guess.

I’ve come to appreciate the three word dimmu borgir albums now much more than I did before. I hated them before because they were “too commercial”, but damn they were really tight and wrote some great songs!

I know I'm stating the obvious, but the cover of Pure Holocaust was a tribute to Kiss' debut.

I predicted your top 3 black metal.

That bathory song is pace till death 😀🤘🏼

You should do one of these on my dying bride 😃

Awesome. Here is my top 5 1. Pure Holocaust 2. At the Heart of Winter 3. Battles in the North 4. Damned in Black 5. All Shall Fall

Funny you say that Diabolical fullmoon mysticism is full on blast beats & speed. I think you're confusing it with Pure Holocaust or Battles in the north. DFM is fairly midpaced & very Bathory influenced, it doesn't have much blast beats at all. And speaking of sophistication, it has those classical guitar parts likely popularized by this exact album.

1993 Pure Holocaust is a timeless masterpiece!

rank the bee gees' albums next

Pure Holocaust my no1

You should do Marduk and Inquisition

I'm a bit suspect when someone says meh about Athems to the Welkins. If you didn't know who made it, didn't see any packaging, would you really listen to it and say meh? That's BM elitism for ya. It's a funny genre, both fans and music. Battles in the North is my favourite and Sons of Northern Darkness runner up which is polar opposite (pun intended)

John rocks front to back like a primate that wasn't hugged enough !! Just kidding....obviously he just simply ROCKS !!

I like Abbath but to me he sounds like popeye

'Sons Of Northern Darkness" is their masterpiece. Change my mind.

I don't have a bath album, because I rather take a shower! He is called Abbbbbbattttttttttttt!! And his former companion is not a demon ass but demonuuuzzzzzz!

Pure Holocaust 🖤 Damned in Black 🖤 Sons of Northern Darkness. At the Heart of Winter. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism. Blizzard Beasts. Battles in the North. All Shall Fall. Northern Chaos Gods.

I used to have every Immortal album but I was only a real fan of At the Heart of Winter, Sons of Northern Darkness, and Fullmoon Mysticism. I really disliked Abbath as a drummer and couldn't get into those albums add the fact that Abbath is inconsistent as a vocalist. Sometimes I like him and sometimes he sounds like a croaking frog.

I prefer the first 3 albums but I don’t listen to this style anymore I prefer clean vocals

I really don't like that elitist thinking in music. If you want to listen to old Immortal then listen to old Immortal, but don't hate on the modern take a band has on it's own music. Black Metal from the early 90s is nowhere near where Black Metal stands 30 years later. And it shouldn't be. Imagine if you would just disregard all the new stuff bands like Borknagar or Ulver released the last couple of years. You would've missed out on so much great music.

When Immortal began to over-use thrash style riffs they lost the magic.