Keiser av en dimensjon ukjent

In my last review, I talked about how "Ånden som gjorde opprør" was a brilliant album that experimented into more melodic themes. "Keiser av en dimensjon ukjent" would be released shortly after, and I'll admit, it's one of those Mortiis albums I haven't gotten into as much as others. It's still a great album, but unlike the other albums in Era 1, this one is missing a certain part that doesn't make the overall atmosphere feel as strong as others. Whether it's the melodies played or the vocal parts, I'm gonna find the missing part in this review.

One area where this album doesn't fall flat is the riffs being played. The synths are nearly identical to the ones in the previous album, and it still sounds great. They still have the high charity and smoothness, but they have more reverb in them. This gives some moments in the album a more dreamy feel, like the first minute and a half in "Reisene til grotter og ødemarker". These moments are combined the make the overall atmosphere feel more melodic and gentle than the ones in the previous album. There's also less darker moments in this album, and the transitions between the light and dark moments are more smooth and even than in "Ånden som gjorde opprør". In terms of instrumentals and atmosphere, this is an improvement.

So then what is stopping this album from being in the same league of quality as the last three releases? Well after listening to this album many times, I'd say that the issue is with the vocal parts. Now that's not to say that the vocals themselves are bad, since Håvard's voice is still deep and emotional enough to carry the instruments. However, the problem lies within the lyrics. The overall lyrical abilities aren't as good as in "Ånden som gjorde opprør". For example, the first song has Håvard singing about having visions on entering different universes. That's a good concept, but the details are vague and don't offer much interpretation. It's slightly worse with the second song, where Håvard says that he is about the die in one of the dimensions he's entered in. It lacks details and we're not sure what happened in between those times. Of course, the composition does a good job in connecting the two, but the lack of details in a story bothers me.

But while the lyrics are a downgrade, the instruments are still astounding. Not only does Håvard keep up with the high-quality synths, but he further expands the melodic sound with more varied melodies and better composition. Even though I don't like this album as much as Mortiis's other works, this album is still great, and is recommended for those who enjoy Mortiis's more mellifluous sound.

What starts as a simple exercise in hammy keyboard music with a heavy nod to fantasy fiction, ends in becoming the world’s premier goblin impersonator and leader of the most successful Nine Inch Nails tribute act. In the annals of recovering black metal artists, few can lay claim to such a bizarre title. And this, in a field where bizarre is pretty much a pre-requisite.

But it wasn’t always so for Mortiis. After a brief but fruitful stint as bassist in black metal legends Emperor, he went on to pursue his goblinoid solo project. Armed with cheap synths and a passion for D&D, he began putting out ambient albums like nobody’s business. Ambient is one of those genres that is cheap to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can’t. Plenty of ambient music is crafted by holding down one long extended note, and layering basic harmonies bit by bit over the top of this. Essentially, it’s boring. This leads many to give up on the style altogether. But then when one comes across genuinely well-crafted music written in this long-form minimalist style, one realises the extent to which others really were phoning it in.

The surprising thing about Mortiis’ first batch of releases is their variety, and their energy. He was not the most talented keyboard player, but sometimes ignorance of the rules grants a musician a different perspective, and a different approach to crafting music. His first three releases follow a similar pattern, two tracks about half an hour in length, formed of a tapestry of melodies, atmospheres, dynamics, and ideas, rather than one flowing piece. By the release of ‘Keiser av en dimensjon ukjent’ in 1995 he had honed this approach to longer form composition. Initially one thinks they are being presented with another monolithic track built up from disconnected but themed ideas. But melodies and themes are regularly returned to as the piece progresses, almost building a leitmotif. I am surprised at how full the music is. I approached early Mortiis expecting atmosphere and filler, but not much in the way of actual music. I could not have been more wrong. Although the ideas are simple they engage the listener, they’re almost catchy.

The music itself is built from simple synth strings, horns, and chants. It really is made up of the interludes and intros common to black metal at the time, developed into a full album. But the dynamics, the variety of moods, from dark to triumph to melancholic, all is surprisingly sophisticated considering the equipment he was limited to. Despite all this I could understand his desire to gradually transition into goth/industrial music as the next steps in the years after this release. Unless he had access to an orchestra it’s hard to see how he could have developed this music any further. I enjoy it for its charms, its sparseness, but also its heart. But one has to admit that video game music and film scores hold a monopoly over this creative space despite the appeal of early Mortiis.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

Mortiis' Keiser av en Dimensjon Ukjent is a journey into a fantasy world that accurately conveys the full extent of a young man's spiritual escape. It is the most successfully realized vision of the early years of Mortiis; afterward he would go on to much shorter and more whimsical musical ideas, and after that something completely different (and much more commercial). I'd go as far as to say that this is Mortiis' most spiritual work.

The theme is decay. This is clearly noticeable in the presentation of the VHS music video for the song Reisene til grotter og ødemarker, where we see prolonged images in a black-and-white landscape that change at a slow (epic?) pace in a manner matching the music, almost like a minimalist version of Koyaanisqatsi. The ideas are long and repetitive, utilizing a cheap synthesizer and the occasional amateurish choir voice by Mortiis himself. The timpani drums pound in slowly accompanied by a proud corpulent brass ensemble (by far the most noticeably cheesy instrument). The "cheese" is immensely important to the purpose of the music, the primitive quality of the sound creating a decaying atmosphere, removing it from all mainstream music, giving it the same "necro" feeling that would make black metal powerful, though in an entirely different quality.

In Reisene til grotter og ødemarker the music is structured in two voices: one is a distant observance of the landscape, and the other is a close-up view, to the point that we see all the ugliness. This latter style is particularly interesting, sounding like the musical mind of a maniacally disturbed tyrant. We can almost imagine the eyes of such a creature, spinning about in its skull with the madness that comes from limitless power within a world too broken and diseased to fight the injustice. This is the sound of decay and the sound of dungeons, an entirely unique atmosphere that you will find in no other music, and yet it is profound when it comes to its conclusions, rising out from the dungeon and up to the top of its tower, where it views the horizon of its vast and glorious kingdom.

Beneath the bleak and decadent exterior, there is a beauty. This is where Mortiis is the most profound and complex. The rot and decay on the surface hide a romantic longing for something far beyond the experience of the everyday and describable, very much like black metal, but without the angsty pimple-ridden testosterone. We can sense that this fantasy world of Mortiis has been given much thought, and is far more vast than these notes could ever convey. We sense that this is a place in which a disillusioned man has retreated into a fantasy that has gone several steps beyond escapism and into the realm of genuine spirituality. Could someone live their life as a monk, but instead of reading and thinking upon the bible in their meditations, could they fill their mind and soul with some very personal inward fantasy? This is the very edge of escapism that Mortiis presents to us, but few will recognize it as such. This is taking fantasy to a level of seriousness that your run-of-the-mill gaming nerd would scoff at. This is fantasy as religion.

I believe that with this and the previous two Mortiis albums, he was trying to create a new lifestyle in the same way that black metal became a lifestyle. It might seem, on the surface, that he was unsuccessful, gaining only a couple vague statements of praise from people who were entertained by, but hopelessly misunderstood his artwork. Yet his ideas have not gone unappreciated by at least this one humble reviewer, who was permanently changed by such works, despite their reputation (or lack thereof).

The second song, Keiser av en dimensjon ukjent continues the journey into this secretive fantasy world. The English translation is "Emperor of a Dimension Unknown," and it certainly suggests the feeling of a god, using the intellectual tools granted to us humble apes in the age of modernity to escape the painful world we live in by creating a new one. Outsiders across the globe create their own lands in D&D games, in writing, in thought, but does anyone recognize how profound this is? We are monkeys, yet we can imagine alternate dimensions. Mortiis revels in that idea, and provides a soundtrack for his listeners to meditate upon their same power, to view the fruits of their imagination (assuming the medieval fantasy is relevant to their creativity, which for most nerdy white males it will be).

The music is about another world. If one does not have the power of imagination to summon forth in their minds the image of an alternate dream-dimension then they can never hope to understand this music. This music is about atmosphere, and those who listen for atmosphere alone are a rare breed, requiring a certain level of imaginative force that would probably hinder them in day-to-day life: a spiritual sense of the fantastic that would send them fleeing from the real world into one more beautiful (even if it is significantly darker).

Dungeon synth is not for the common man. This is not something you hear once and simply understand; this is a whole universe of unique thought. Mortiis did not make this to earn fame or money, he made this solely for himself. But for those who can share such a vision, it is a masterpiece of indescribable profundity.

Originally posted at [url]http://dungeonsynth.blogspot.com/[/url]

This is my favorite Mortiis album. I especially like the first of the two songs. This needs no introduction for most knowledgeable metal heads, but for those who don’t know about Mortiis:
This is not metal. He played bass for Norwegian black metal legend Emperor. Mortiis left Emperor before they recorded their first full length album, and he began making keyboard music. He later changed his style to industrial metal, but this album is the keyboard stuff.

This album, like Mortiis’ other early albums, is very relaxing, and very repetitive. The music alternates between sorrowful melodies and majestic melodies. The album title means something like King of an Unknown Dimension.

The first song is my favorite Mortiis song. It starts with a majestic intro, played on what sounds like deep bells (keyboard setting that is). Then the main theme fades in. This is a fantastic sorrowful melody. It evokes a sense a sense of longing. It might put the listener in a contemplative or trancelike state. This is one of Mortiis’ best melodies. It’s repeated several times, then the intro melody comes back. It fades out and the beautiful main theme comes back. The king looks out over his vast realm and contemplates the fate of his people. Some background harmonies add in. It sounds like a choir. Then it transitions into a regal sounding melody and the song takes on a majestic feel.

Suddenly a troll appears. Seriously, there is a video for this song. It just shows all these different views of a castle while the above mentioned parts are playing. Then Mortiis himself shows up with the abrupt entrance of some warning notes.

The song fades out, and a new part comes in. This has a darker and industrial feel to it. It’s like the orcs working underground with molten metal. It has a kind of slow march beat.

After a while of that, the beautiful parts come back for a while. There is also a part with some spoken words. It’s in Norwegian and sounds like it has effects on the voice.

The next song starts with its main theme, which sounds like it could be a folk melody (not bouncy though). It’s slow and pretty, kind of sad sounding. There are a few transitions, a more up-beat part in the middle, and several returns to the main theme. I won’t try to describe what each part sounds like. I’ll just say that it is a good song, but I don’t like it as much as the first.

It’s hard to describe this music in detail. It’s beautiful, relaxing, and repetitive. I recommend this and also Wongraven as a change of pace for fans of viking or pagan metal and/or Norwegian black metal like Emperor, etc.