’Tis the season to be jolly……Ah wait, someone forgot to tell Fortíð. who have just released their sixth full length. Instead of festive cheer, ‘World Serpent’ is a dark, intense slab of desolate extreme metal that on reflection is perhaps a more appropriate soundtrack to this year’s “festive period”.
Fortíð came into existence in 2002 as a solo project of Einar Eldur Thorberg seeing the release of the Völuspá trilogy between 2003 and 2010, and more recently ‘Pagan Prophecies’ and ‘9’. During this time, Einar relocated from Iceland to Norway, but in 2017 he moved back to Iceland. This is significant as it explains why ‘World Serpent’ is very much an album of two halves. The first half was recorded in Norway with the “old” members of Fortid (the Norwegian spelling was used while based in Norway), and when Einar relocated to Iceland, he continued work on the album with Kristján Einar Guðmundsson (Kontinuum, Potentiam) as Fortíð. Enough waffle, what about the music?
‘World Serpent’ opens with ‘AI 2020’, a simple but haunting instrumental which builds with the addition of percussion, sounding reminiscent of the ‘Terminator’ soundtrack creating visions of a barren post-apocalyptic future, leading into ‘The True Awakening’. Subtle guitar riffs and echoic clean vocals continue building a chilling atmosphere as this opus builds. The vocals become harsher before a sublime atmospheric musical interlude lifts the intensity, albeit transiently. When the track rebuilds there is an increased sense of venom. Once more, clean vocals and understated guitar melodies combine to great effect.
‘Controlled Patterned Mental Process’ is more direct in its approach and has a greater sense of urgency. The percussion is a little more direct as is the riffing, but there are still exquisite touches in the melodies and guitar work. It was at this stage that I found myself pondering what genre label this would sit under? There are definite black metal elements, and the Icelandic influence is clear, but it stretches well beyond the usual confines of black metal. This continues on ‘Insignificant is the Wormking’s Throne’ and ‘Suppressed Opposition’ and as I pondered the music I found myself reminded of Norwegian band Khonsu.
The second half of the album begins with a gentle instrumental section before being joined by despondent, perhaps even lamenting vocals. The vocals evolve but now have a slightly more black metal edge to them. The track sways back and forth between this aggressive style and the more melancholic passages to great effect and this is one of the stand out tracks on the album for me. Ironically, ‘Pandemic’ (either hugely prophectic or written about the current coronavirus pandemic) is one of the most upbeat (or should that be least downbeat??) tracks on the album with its more direct approach and clear thrash metal influences. Don’t get me wrong the track is still skilfully crafted with superb musicianship, and is exactly what the album needs at this point.
‘Beyond the Grips of Odium’ sees a return to the clean/harsh vocal partnership and has a staccato feel as it builds and towards to the latter portion of the song, it grows into a satisfying slice of black metal. ‘Perfect Annihilation’ is perhaps a little more straight forward, and has much more of a groove pulsating through it as it unravels. The album is brought to a close with ‘Last Line of Defence’, a two and a half minute instrumental which nicely fades out leaving screaming silence.
This is one of these albums that leaves you feeling drained, and yet completely drawn in, and you find yourself reaching for the play button again. Each listen reveals different layers, and it will not truly reveal itself to you until the third or fourth time but when it does it is a privilege. This is despondent, desolate, cerebral, extreme music rooted in black metal but with many different elements represented. It is a fitting soundtrack to our current blighted world.
(8.5/10 Andy Pountney)
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