Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable

The debut album from New Jersey black metallers Death Fortress, “Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable,” is a lot more enjoyable than expected and comes off as a rather surprising entry in the genre.

Frankly, there’s a lot to like here and it really starts with the generous and dynamic guitar variances. Being involved in the atmospheric black metal realm, the fact is the band does manage to feature that appropriately colorful tone in their guitar riffs which lends itself quite well to the genre. The swirling, repetitive nature of the riffing along with the generous usage of tremolo-picked patterns creates that frosty, wind-swept nature so reminiscent of the guitar-riffing found in the earlier releases of the genre and brings about its’ undeniably strong atmosphere. In contrast to the heavier blasting on display, this tends to offer up a more relaxed and melodic tone against the relentless blasting featured as the blaring guitars riffing on the same patterns is quite infectious at times. No doubt the raw nature of the production certainly helps with this, but more importantly this heavy, organic-sounding presence makes for a rather impressive feature for a debut offering. Even more impressive, the repetitive nature of this style allows for numerous opportunities to really let the riffing run in extended passages to let the patterns sink in for all their worth which is highly effective.

Along with the thrilling atmospheric work done here, the guitars do manage another rather intriguing aspect in their featured use of traditional black metal rhythms. There’s plenty of those perfectly-pitched tremolo-picked melodies that are on display here along with the buzzing atmospherics and these do the opposite job of producing a more prototypical black metal effort here in terms of heaviness and overall approach. Not only is there the rattling drumming on display that tends to feature extravagant fills, rolls and double-bass blasts from those traditional rhythms featured, but the heavier rhythms featured here manage to almost become as weighty and heavy as death metal such is the might of these sections which gives this a more pronounced and stylish feel overall. The melody is there from the atmospheric nature of the riffing within this, but based off the other notes on display there’s a solid black metal foundation which keeps this from really dwelling in the potential flaws of the genre in the repetitive riff-work and dominance of atmosphere over heaviness. These are featured to enough of a degree than the band does manage to appeal to both sections quite well and certainly shows quite an advanced level of ingenuity for the future.

There’s not a whole lot here that really doesn’t appeal to this as the band does seem pretty well cohesive and covered throughout this. The use of atmospheric riffing patterns against heavy, thumping black metal rhythms makes for an intriguing, up-tempo style of music that’s quite impressive in execution as well as concept for this clearly allows them to remain firmly in the atmospheric side of the pendulum as was their obvious intention while giving off enough heaviness to drag more traditional fans over into their sound. Really, about the only thing that the band could stand to work on is the pacing of their albums better since this one clearly shows a decidedly lack of intriguing efforts the deeper this goes as their tricks have all been employed and there’s not a whole lot else it can do. This does tend to be more noticeable as the second half doesn’t really have the epics that the first half really worked quite well with as the longer tracks gave them more room to really maneuver here and let their compositions breathe, while the shorter efforts on the second half just seem like lightning fast interpretations of these tracks without really doing a lot of extra work to differentiate them. It’s a minor quibble but it does cause this to become slightly and more noticeably weaker as it goes on, and while it does finish with a strong effort those weaker ones do lower this slightly.

The first half here sets the bar pretty high for what’s to come within. Opener ‘King’s Blood’ uses ambient guitar squealing with swirling riff-work and melodic leads along the pounding, devastating drumming weaving through the more dynamic paces and energetic rhythms barreling through the pounding drumming and frosty riffing patterns rattling through the sturdy, chaotic finale for a dynamic and noteworthy highlight. Much in that light, ‘Arrogant Force’ bleeds through with howling winds and pounding drumming run through blistering tempos filled with swirling tremolo-rhythms and tight drumming that retains its’ up-tempo pace through more traditional blasting drum-work with stylish rhythm changes through tight, frantic blasts and fiery tremolo-picked rhythms into the final half for another top-shelf track. The album’s centerpiece epic ‘Fifth Season’ features heavy, dexterous blasting alongside swirling riffing with rhythmic guitar lines featuring more traditional blaring drumming with pounding through frantic, up-tempo patterns and heavy atmospheric riffing leading into the extended droning rhythms and sluggish pace of the final half for the most impressive offering here and is certainly a noteworthy highlight.

The second half doesn’t do much differently than the first as it simply suffers against what came before it. This is evident in the title track as the rattling drumming and dynamic riffing through dynamic, pounding rhythms and blasting drumming with deep, heavy riffs blasting through up-tempo segments into an intricate, melodic interlude of swirling atmospheric patterns and rattling drumming through the final half, making for an enjoyable if not essential track like the others provided. A little more enjoyable, ‘Pride of the Enslaver’ features heavy riffing and swirling atmospherics lead into light drumming and mid-tempo riffing offer up a series of rattling atmospheric patterns against the dexterous drumming and steady rhythms that continue on through the heavy blasting and swirling riff-work of the finale for a better effort but doesn’t seem to do anything that other tracks do much better here. Ending with a bang, ‘Ancestor’s Call’ starts with crashing drumming and fiery tremolo-picked rhythms merge into chaotic patterns and energetic, up-tempo march as the swirling atmospheric patterns and blasting drumming careening through the up-tempo paces and heavy rhythms with the extended atmospheric sections making up the finale here for a much better effort than the previous tracks and makes for a fine overall conclusion.

This is certainly a highly enjoyable and worthwhile release in the genre which seems to be getting more-and-more crowded lately and this might be enough to cause them to stick out from the pack. A few lackluster tracks aside, this one is packed with enough quality to potentially be a major force to be reckoned with in the genre with this one appealing not only to the atmospheric fans but also to those who enjoy the more extreme variety of traditional black metal.