Seriously, is there anyone out there who still hasn’t seen Immortal’s ‘video clip’ for Call of the Wintermoon? The one where Abbath, Demonaz and their then-drummer Kolgrim charge through the woods in corpse paint, spike gear and wizard robes, breathing fire and making ridiculous faces?
The sheer absurdity still cracks people up and leaves them wondering what the hell they just watched. For years, puzzled fans tried to explain it the only way they could: by assuming Immortal had a great sense of humor and didn’t take themselves too seriously. Grim and frostbitten Black Metal — but with a wink.
And yet, nothing could be further from the truth. According to the band, the video was never even supposed to exist.
Here’s the story: In the early ’90s, Immortal made several appearances on Norwegian TV. No mystery why — the ashes of the recently burned churches were still smoldering, and Black Metal was the subject of major media attention across the country. Immortal, never ones to shy away from the spotlight, took full Advantage of it.
Demonaz said it plainly in ‘Skogen’ fanzine in 1995:
“It helps us sell more albums. We don’t follow that hardcore mentality of ‘you’re nothing, don’t make profit, give away albums for free, support the underground’ etc. We want to get well-known and we use opportunities.”
So in 1993 they accepted an offer from a TV crew. What followed was a TV interview that ended up on air — and the now-infamous forest vide shoot at the ruins of Lysekloster near Bergen city (the same spot used for the ‘Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism’ cover). The footage from that shoot would later become the “Call of the Wintermoon” video.
“This so-called ‘video’ is not a video made by us”, Demonaz makes clear. “It’s just some stupid film cuts put together by a ‘learning-to-be-a-producer’ idiot from the TV station. It completely sucks and was never meant to be released at all. F*ck the TV stations in Norway!”
And that’s the story behind Immortal’s ‘first video’, which came to fame so unintentionally.