In a not-so-surprising turn of events recently, Immortal was announced to be over and frontman Abbath announced he was going solo. The metal world pretty much understood, though solemnly, considering the group hadn't done anything since 2009's All Shall Fall. The announcement was made without much explanation and we all assumed it might have had something to do with recent legal troubles.
Now Abbath tells his side of the story to Metal Hammer UK, which he makes sound less like a messy fight and more like ending the group because it was the right thing to do.
"I didn't want to go solo in the first place. I wanted the best for Immortal. I didn't want it to end this way. First of all, I just wanted my music out. I wanted to record the [next] album [because] it's been so many years since 'All Shall Fall'. And both Demonaz and Horgh, they have kids and families now, and it just hit that point where I couldn't work the way they wanted to work any more. I wanted things on my terms and they wanted things on their terms, and it was very difficult."
I wanted to rehearse at least three times a week, but often it was only once a week and things went so slow. I sat there with all this material, I kept the rehearsal space and recorded the stuff on click track, but it was a very strained atmosphere and the Last time we worked together was in early June last year."
I was forced to do it this way. I wanted Immortal to continue, but not the way it was. The dialogue has not been there and it's also my mistake. I should have brought up this shit a long time ago, but Immortal, after Demonaz's problems with his arms, it never became a band after that."
Immortal is a very special situation. [Demonaz] hasn't been in the band, but then I always wanted to do the best for everybody, to have the band spirit, and that's why when we decided to start Immortal again, we tried to get the spirit back, and bring him on tour, and just share our thing and be a band and have a kick-ass time. But it never worked out. The chemistry wasn't there with the Immortal guys and hadn't been for a while."
I wonder if the other band mates will speak out on this one? There's really no reason not to believe Abbath, but after what little drama leaked out to the public, I would tend to think there's a little more to this.
[via Blabbermouth]
