When Fall, the latest album from Norwegian progressive black metal stalwarts Borknagar first hit my inbox, the weather outside my window matched that of the band’s motherland. Snow and ice covered the ground, while winter’s grip struck down any mortal who dared challenge its reign, unleashing ruthless wind chills capable of causing hypothermia. In the time since, and in true Chicago fashion, the weather has varied. Yesterday, it was 70 degrees out and I didn’t even wear a jacket. Today, it was too cold to walk around the block. You just can’t win in the Windy City!
While the climate is everchanging, what isn’t is Borknagar’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of black metal as we know it, one daring album at a time. When we interviewed founder Øystein Brun last month, he addressed the band’s role in black metal’s evolution, specifically mentioning their incorporation of clean vocals, which would become a staple of the genre in just a few years time. In the decades that followed, Borknagar only became more ambitious, expanding their sonic palette with elements of Viking metal, progressive metal, traditional metal, atmospheric rock, and folk. All of these elements and more are proudly showcased on their latest album, Fall.
The album opens in grand fashion with the epic “Summits”. On this nearly 8 minute musical voyage, harsh and clean vocals collide against a backdrop of hauntingly beautiful melodies and abysmal blackened chaos. A lush Yes-esque passage halfway through serves as the musical cherry on top. “Nordic Anthem” follows, mesmerizing us with its tribal rhythms and droning guitar riffs, while “Afar” comes off as a throwback to Borknagar’s early days, the symphonic bombast and sinister twists screaming late ’90s black metal. Admittedly, there isn’t much else in the way of “trve” black metal on Fall, but this isn’t to say it’s any less compelling of a listen.
The one-two punch of “Moon” and “Stars Ablaze” (I can’t be the only one who doesn’t find that sequencing to be coincidental) boasts old school metal guitar leads akin to Maiden and Mercyful Fate, courtesy of Jostein Thomassen, while “The Wild Lingers” is a masterclass in black metal balladry. “Unraveling” fuses ’70s prog atmosphere, ’80s metal orthodoxy, and the slightest hint of Norwegian darkness with precision, before the closing “Northward” basks in its ambitious and thrilling execution. It takes a band of pros to pull off music of this nature without coming off as contrived. Borknagar does so in spades.
Being a band that proudly boasts a catalog full of “headphones only” releases, it’s no surprise that Fall meets the same impeccable standards, breathtakingly ethereal as it is spellbindingly cerebral. Despite now celebrating their 30th anniversary, Borknagar proves with album #12 that there is still new ground to be broken within black metal, and that it should be done so with the utmost reverence to the genre’s core ethos (Looking at you US “black metallers”). The album may be titled Fall, but it’s bound to rise to the top of listening rotations for many headbangers of a forward-thinking disposition.
8 out of 10
Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Progressive Black Metal
For fans of: Enslaved, Ulver, Arcturus