Traveler of the Untouched Voids

Following their debut album, Finnish black metallers Mørketida are back with a new mini-album of majestic extremism.

Dungeon synth style ambience drops us into the mystical mini record with riveting guitars soon ferocious adding a bleak and haunting aggression to the gorgeous keys. The crashing of cymbals and pounding drums back up the cascade of excellent riffs while the vocals give a very traditional and gritty performance of morbid snarls. Immediately the old school vibrancy of 90s black metal is pretty strong with some amazing musicianship delivering an extremely enticing display of pure malevolent and medieval brilliance.

With a clear blend of stripped back black metal at the heart of the music but coupled with dungeon synth, this is the kind of ambient black metal that is still abrasive and intense while offering melody and haunting soundscapes, never sacrificing the extremity at the heart of the sound. A rich and hypnotic conjuration of eerie musical prowess is utilised over the four tracks to make an immersive and deeply chilling experience with some dissonant edge and groove that really hits hard. These discordant blows are definitely accentuated by being placed among more meditative and peaceful sections, ripping through any idea of relaxation with unhinged riffs and hammering drums.

Although this release is only a little over twenty minutes in running time, these four pieces of monolithically ambient and spectral black metal will certainly leave you yearning for more from these Finnish masters of atmospheric excellence. A magnificent journey with so many ruthless and ritualistic sounds that transcend each other to make for a deeply mesmerising record of mighty and glorious proportions. This is a near-perfect blend of twisted, aggressive and convulsively vicious black metal with stunning melodies and rich ambience that makes for a both beautiful and hideously disdainful listen.

As per usual the Finnish have delivered an almost flawless album, showing that they seemingly have mastered the black metal arts. Do not miss out on this gorgeously violent and yet tranquil medley of monstrous new tracks from Mørketida, they certainly are wondrous pieces indeed.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com

Despite the significant role played by the keyboards in Mørketida's music, their black metal cannot be called "atmospheric", much less "symphonic". "Traveler of the Untouched Voids" offers a raw and "true-ish" sound, guitars are recorded sharply, with no small amount of "fizz", – there is some kind of an aural aggression even here, sometimes the awful distortion sound in the right channel really hurts the ear. Definitely, from the point of view of sound, there can be no "symphonic". It's just black metal with keyboards, as was the case, for example, with the early Gehenna. "Traveler of the Untouched Voids", by the way, sometimes brings to mind their mini-album "First Spell" (1994). However, although the keyboard parts of Mørketida are also melodic, you cannot put an equal sign between these releases – in comparison with these rather young Finns, the material of the Norwegian luminaries can even be called "soft".

Mørketida sullenly put pressure forward, using the monotonous repetition of minimalistic riffs, mostly at a mid-tempo. "Traveler of the Untouched Voids" is characterized by melodic tremolo picking too, but most of the solo or lead melodies are played by the keyboards. But they do not soften Mørketida's severe message at all – no "symphonic" again. Perhaps, only in the beginning of the third title song "Traveler of the Untouched Voids", the keyboard part is somewhat sentimental, at the best case – epic and sad. But then it is replaced by the monotonous and primitive part, while the "clangorous" guitar performs the same melody – hell yes, this is a long and really impressive episode. By the way, in the first song, "Descent of Purple Mist", the keyboards share their part with the vocals, – this is a good trick.

Except for the beginning of "Upon the Aged Heavens", where the death metal vocals, visceral and slightly "robotic", dictate their will, the main vocals are classically harsh and grating, a bit in the vein of the early Immortal, or rather, Inquisition. This similarity is especially increased during the blast beat parts. Yes, high-speed passages are encountered, but they are not so frequent and lengthy in time. And a parallel with Inquisition can be drawn along the musical component, too – during the slow episodes this time: a "groovy" and at the same time funeral riff at the end of "Descent of Purple Mist"; the first riff in "Upon the Aged Heavens", with a string-bending style of playing, although it is somewhat sluggish here; and the rhythm guitar part in the pause of "Traveler of the Untouched Voids".

The best song on this release is the second "Upon the Aged Heavens". It is built, of course, on a primitive, monotonous riff which is played with down picking, almost in the heavy metal manner, anyway, the techniques that used in this composition, make it diversified and interesting: a sluggish guitar fingerpicking is combined with a guitar that continues to play the string bending riff; the tempo is going crazy: then drops, then increases again; a muffled bass solo, cautiously appearing from behind the "clouds" of the guitar riffs, enchants with its melody. The cold and rough sound, the thorny riff forcing the atmosphere – all this almost mesmerizes, so this composition makes an impact even without the keyboards, although they are present here (right, no "symphonic" again). The third "Traveler of the Untouched Voids" is not so effective in charming, but except the monotonous part, described above, it is noteworthy, with a strange tuneful solo, mindbending by both melody and long impression. And an acoustic guitar bridge à la flamenco (or it is such a keyboard part), appearing out of the clear sky, has a more psychedelic effect than a relaxation one.

Well, as for the general sound, there is one unpleasant circumstance: a booming ringing from the snare drum reigns in the drum mix. It is very audible, and there is a suspicion that this was done on purpose. Beyond all doubt, during the slow episodes this "effect" gives weird expressiveness to the atmosphere, but on blast beat it turns against the band. Indeed, this continuous rumble / ringing interferes more than it gives some kind of originality to the sound. Both "Upon the Aged Heavens" and "Traveler of the Untouched Voids" show in their finales, when all the instruments are faded out, that the quiet unobtrusive keyboard background sounds almost throughout the song. So, if they have such a weird "decoration", why do they also need this snare drum ringing? This lead to a mess in sound.

The last song is an Immortal cover "Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss". It is performed in good faith, completely according to the original templates. Well, after the dominance of the keyboards on "Traveler of the Untouched Voids", it would be quite natural to add a keyboard arrangement to the immortal "hit" of Immortal, but Mørketida did not dare to do such an "experiment". The only "decoration" of this cover is the snare drum ringing noted above, however here it also spoils the sound more than it gives some kind of originality. In addition, "Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss" is not stylistically consistent with the rather original material of "Traveler of the Untouched Voids". The only thing that connects this cover with the previous songs is the Immortal-like vocals. Perhaps the mini-album would not have suffered at all if Mørketida had done without this cover.

The Metal Observer