Escaping the Abyss

Melodic Black Metal is far from my favourite genre, yet Fornost Arnor is one of the few surprisingly good exceptions which is particularly surprising as they hail from the underground UK scene where sleaze, obscurity, occultism and dystopia are usually among the dominant keywords. This is even more remarkable for me as in the few reviews I’ve read for Escaping The Abyss, Opeth are repeatedly mentioned; a band whose sterile, aimless meandering I loathe with a passion. Having said that, Opeth are undoubtedly a major influence but the style of songwriting and instrumentation thankfully resemble that of Ihsahn’s eponymous solo project.

The throaty screamed vocals sound particularly desiccated which work well with the equally dry guitars’ frequent open chords and the intentional discordance courtesy of chords of a diminished nature. Occasionally the lead and acoustic guitars have a fuller tone which, with the clean vocals and bass, provides some depth in the overall sound. These sections best demonstrate the versatility of the songwriting where acoustic breaks have a clear sense of purpose while swirling leads and solos are expertly constructed and absolutely integral rather than pure auditory masturbation. During the second half of the album these passages almost begin to remind of Krallice, yet Fornost Arnor give the impression of being largely devoid of pretension and are equally content to plunge forward with punishingly desolate powerchords when situation dictates.

Unfortunately though, there are a few major detractors from the quality of the album. Firstly, the drums - while being composed at the same high standard as the rest of the album - seem to be triggered, very compressed and thus sound plastic and fake. Secondly, for my money the lyrics are on par with Anathema: absolutely terrible and make me cringe whenever a particularly bad line is sung or decipherable through the screaming.

However despite these gripes Escaping The Abyss remains a good album, especially as it’s a debut effort from a genre I usually don’t get along well with. The main reasons for this are that they haven’t forgotten how to write a relatively concise, progressive metal song without descending into releasing directionless bollocks or trying to be too clever and use every time signature and instrument known to man. Fornost Arnor prove that utilising traditional metal instruments can still be unique and progressive based entirely on composition, evidenced predominantly by the lead guitars but also in other areas; for example there’s a solitary and brief passage of slap bass in A Trance Of Madness that works perfectly. Things like this could see Fornost Arnor become a major force to be reckoned with, particularly if they start writing better lyrics and adopt a slightly more organic drum sound.