Behold Fortress Inferno

There are years where I listen to a lot of black metal and years where I don’t, this year has been the former. I like when I end up listening to a good share of newly released Black Metal because I really get a sense for where the genre is on the whole and what influences are really standing out. It’s been somewhat of a mixed bag this year, for example Dismalimerence, Emyn Muil and Morwynion were all excellent albums, but for every one of those there was a Häxenzijrkell or a Disamara. My initial reaction to this album is that it takes a lot of what I’ve been hearing all year and puts it together in a very cohesive way. The production is definitely in keeping with imitation of second wave black metal from the early 90s. I guess it most reminds me of Enslaved's debut album Vikingr Veldi for an album to compare it to, especially with these track lengths. In 1994 Vikingr Veldi was quite a revolutionary album and it’s unfortunate that nowadays this kind of album probably wouldn’t be seen by most as anything particularly special, but in my experience the hardest balance to really nail down in black metal is when you have keyboards; figuring out how and where to apply them can be quite a challenging task and The Kryptik have done an impressive job.

First let’s talk about that organ intro on the title track, I mean what a way to start off an album right? We get about 2 minutes worth of dramatic haunted castle style organ playing that sets the mood and atmosphere for the album perfectly. There’s some synth choir in the background, but once the song really gets going it’s all on the guitar and the rhythm section. This album is firmly rooted in the second wave black metal of the early 90s, as evidenced by the Mayhem cover at the end of this album. In fact for those Mayhem fans reading this review Funeral Fog really fits the style of this album and I really could see it being an original composition of the band’s if I didn’t already know the song. My point being that if you’re a fan of old school black metal then this should really scratch that itch because I genuinely could have been convinced this was written in the 90s, again if I didn’t know any better. Anyway after the slab of unadulterated black metal that is Behold Fortress Inferno we get The Plagues of the Abyss, another blistering 8 minutes of black metal still with that ethereal choir sound in the background keeping the otherworldly feel this album cultivates, borrowing tricks from bands like Summoning and Coldworld with the combination of atmospheric black metal and material that’s more straight forward.

Thinking about black metal as a genre, it’s usually a pretty simple formula, that’s not meant as a criticism so much as an observation; in its earliest conception black metal was much closer to thrash metal with extra steps. The second wave experimented with those basic concepts, but perhaps not going as far as they could have. The point I’m trying to make is that it can be tricky and difficult to tinker with the traditional black metal sound without alienating different fanbases. Some people might look at the genre of black metal and call it repetitive and samey, and I suppose in a way they’d be right, but I look at it as a constant effort towards perfection of the black metal style, everyone wants to to push the boundaries in their own way whether it’s the prog route (my favorite) with the likes of Ihsahn/Emperor, Enslaved, Borknagar, Etc. Or the melodic death metal route alongside Karlahan, Dissection, and Deicide, each of those evolutions of black metal left behind some fans. There is still a core demographic of those who yearn for black metal the likes of In the Nightside Eclipse, A Blaze in the Northern Sky, and At the Heart of Winter. This album is for you, this band is for you; everything about this band, their sound, their aesthetic. I made some pretty lofty comparisons, I know that, and maybe this album isn’t on that level, but I give them all the credit in the world for being able to take inspiration from a wide range of sources and kind of boiling it all down to the essence. They take all of my expectations of classic black metal and put them together. I feel like there’s no one area where they’re really pushing a boundary or trying to evolve the genre, but that’s not the point here they are doing their best to create a black metal album that sounds like it came out in 1995 and that is exactly what they have achieved.

I don’t really want to spend the rest of this telling you about the rest of the songs because it would just be me gushing about how great the riffs sound, how the mix is actually really good and while the production definitely has that black metal emptiness without much bass at all, it still sounds clear and intelligible which I’m going to make my number one most important black metal concern, I don’t care how “trve” you are at least make sure I can hear the layers in the music that you want me to hear. Whoever engineered this album did a brilliant job. The vocals have just the right timbre, the guitars have the perfect tone, and the synth hits just the right tone of dungeon synth in the background really giving the whole album a lot of depth and helping it fill the space. Obviously this is just an ep and as of right now I actually haven’t listened to anything else they’ve made (I’m definitely going to now), but I really enjoyed this ep for what it is, an homage to the sound of black metal or at least, my idea of black metal. I try not to speak for all fans of any genre so I try to be as broad as possible. I have nothing else to say, this was a treat.

Straight out of Rio de Janeiro comes the best Swedish black metal album you’ve heard all year. This forty-minute-long EP offers some of the best melding of epic riffcraft with bracing symphonic atmospheres to be heard in a long time. Channelling the spirit of Dawn or Vinterland, The Krytpik focus on building rich, carefully balanced sweeping narratives of cold, melodic black metal. The guitars have ceded some of the ground as lead instrument to the keyboards in a delicate balance of priorities. Although the riffs still guide the overall direction of the music via refined melodies and blasting tremolo picking, the complexity is kept to a minimum in favour of allowing the keyboards breathing space to fill out the atmosphere, and sometimes rise above the mix to dominate the sound with glorious harmonies.

In noting the production values, now more than ever, the architecture analogy beckons us. The foundations of this mix can be observed from the drums up. The tight double bass work offers a depth and size to the sound without disrupting the elegant ballet of the more delicate instruments above it. The snare is sharp, but some of the decay has been removed which means it can offer a tight punch of blast-beats or a steady rhythm and lose none of the impact. The whole drum performance is framed by a sheen of tight fills and cymbals that wash out the sound, working more like ambience than percussion.

As mentioned, the keyboards are placed centre stage here, sharing the lead role adjacent to the guitars. Aside from some soaring chord progressions either on choral, organ, or string effects that occasionally swoop in to carry the music higher, they adopt a kind of ponderous rhythm guitar role. This means that the guitar tone – whilst not thin or tinny by black metal standards – can remain at the high end, offering a sharp, well-defined sound perfect for articulating those tremolo lead melodies, whether it’s a simple two chord refrain or something more involved. Vocals are surprisingly intimate on this recording. They are not washed out with heavy-handed reverb or set low and distant in the mix to give the illusion of size. Rather they feel next to one’s ear, maniacally narrating us through this journey by our side, as the size and scope of the rest of the music unfolds before us. This juxtaposition is not jarring however, thanks in large part to Danilo Ximenes’ stirring performance.

As far as the compositions themselves, much like Dawn, they are usually guided by one simple guitar refrain that opens the track, as layers of keyboards and percussion are added this undergoes simple shifts and variations before reaching a dramatic mid-point, defined either by a shift in tempo, timbre, or key. All very simple and commonplace tricks of the trade that undergo a profound transformation when applied in the right setting, patiently built and placed in their proper place within these epic narratives.

Despite the album’s lavish trappings, the exhilarating pulse of the whole thing showcases speed and intensity as much as ethereal atmospheres. When considered in context of time and wider trends within melodic black metal, ‘Behold Fortress Inferno’ is still fundamentally a work of restraint. Each individual idea is relatively simple. One does not listen to it feeling that anything needed adding or taking away. They represent microcosms of ideas, beautiful to behold in their own right. But then placed in their wider context within these epic compositions they take on new meaning and significance. If the temptation to showcase overly technical or atypical aesthetics had been succumbed to, this brilliant balance of elements would collapse into confusion. As it stands, ‘Behold Fortress Inferno’ is a grand reaffirmation of melodic black metal at its finest.

Originally published at Hate Meditations