Seance

Allright - now here’s one of the surprises that 2006 will bring us. With their fourth full-length album, Dark Fortress deliver one of the most complete black metal records of the past five years, that can (and probably will) enlarge their reputation for sure. How come?
First of all, it’s impressive how many different influences ‘Séance’ contains, and especially how well all those fit together. Mayhem (in their ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ days) is what pops into your mind first, but the ten songs also contain elements which can be traced back to totally different bands such as Emperor, Darkthrone, Dimmu Borgir... I even thought of (old) Mortiis for a short while when listening to “While They Sleep”. Vocalist Azathoth also sounds like a combination of Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir. All famous bands/artists (meaning: easy to be influenced by), indeed, but all with a very different style of writing and playing, so how to combine those? Listen to ‘Séance’ and you’ll know it. Secondly, the compositions are very well thought-out. Not one is similar to another, and all songs contain different layers, which makes that boredom won’t strike soon, even when playing the album over and over without a pause. The atmosphere in the music is very uniform, though, preventing you from getting the impression of switching from one band to another continuously. Astonishing, and respect for this craftsmanship.
When my rating, argumentation, and the comparisons above haven’t already convinced you to buy ‘Séance’, or when you don’t root to reviews at all: go and listen to the grandiose Mayhem-like “Ghastly Indoctrination”, the fast and pounding “To Harvest The Artefacts Of Mockery”, the Darkthrone / Emperor crossover “Poltergeist”, and the haunting “Shardfigures”. You’ll know it from then on: Dark Fortress deserve all the support they can get.