There are moments in which some of the riffs sound like a fast and dark thrash metal, but the fierce on the vocals and lyrics (which by the way are well done and though through, they are not the same satanic and sometimes ridiculous lyrics written by many bands in the genre) presented by Abbath get you back to what At the Heart of winter is all about, Black metal.

What reigns through out this production is the perfectly and well timely changes in the rhythm of every song, they managed to create and atmosphere of depression, anger and solitude that others try to achieve by pumping up the volume.

At the Heart of winter has every good aspect of black metal and none of the bad ones, every song is brutal and grey, incredible guitar work and demolishing drums, that capture your attention at first glance. The average duration of every song doesn’t come down from the six minute barrier, in this six song production.

Some fans didn’t like the clear sound of some of the songs, but this complains don’t last longer than the third track, because when the fourth one begins (Where dark and Light don’t differ) every doubt about Immortal’s brutality are easy erased.

Black metal is more than some guy with a painted face and demon aspirations, Immortal’s black metal is inventive, amazing and it takes away some of the weapons many non black metal fans had towards this genre, it proves that this genre is not about looking evil, is about making intense deep music.