Pagan Prophecies

After the completion of the Völuspá trilogy in 2010, Einar Thorberg has gathered three new band members to have a complete line-up for live shows. For the new album “Pagan Prophecies” these new members have also contributed different elements to the music, thus beginning a completely new era of FORTÍÐ.

The cover artwork is pretty well designed, with the band logo in the background and a big “M” rune in the front, surrounded by icicles and flames. I’m not, however, very satisfied with the choice of the album title, that seems to imply we are dealing with another ready-made pagan metal album. That is not true at all, considering the quality and enormous variety of different elements “Pagan Prophecies” has to offer.

The CD starts off with some straight forward black metal riffs, paired with precise blastbeats and a very melodic lead guitar in the title track. Even in this first track they show how much they pay attention to details, which is not exactly too common in this genre. A small guitar lick or solo here, an acoustic part or little keyboard interlude there; every time you listen to the album again, you will find something new in every song.

In contrast to the opener, “Spirit of The North” is more like an epic steam roller: Slowly but steadily it marches on, with choirs and keyboard in the background. “Lesser sons of Greater Fathers” really surprised me a lot. With a good deal of acoustic guitars and very good clean(!) vocals this one really shows that FORTÍÐ do not constrain their own creativity. Even the more brutal songs like “Electric Horizon” or “Sun Turns Black” always come up with surprises and variations such as piano interludes or breaks, that often contribute to a specific mood or simply make the songs more dynamic.

“Ad Handan” and “Endalok” (which I see as a kind of outro) again combine all the crucial elements that make the album a very good one: Melodic and heavy guitars, keyboards that are able to create a certain mood (without ever getting too dominant), atmospheric acoustic parts and both harsh and clean vocals. An 18 minute long hidden track with sounds of rain and thunder end this outstanding album in quite an uncommon way. Of course, the idea to use such sound samples is not new at all, but I’ve never heard of such a long one before. For me, 4 or 5 minutes of that would have been sufficient.

Summing up what I have said before, “Pagan Prophecies” (although the album title sounds a bit banal) is a very good album that manages to put many elements together, forming a coherent work of art. The bands discerning eye for the detail makes this album a pleasure to listen to, especially because there are new things to be found each time. Hopefully, FORTÍÐ will be able to establish themselves in the long-term with this line-up.

Originally written for www.northwind-promotion.org