Reviews: Mortiis

Gothic, Medieval Folk

Crypt of the Wizard - recorded in ‘95-’96, released 1999

Well I never would have thought that I would have been listening to folk music, but I was curious about what the ex-bassist for the kings of black metal Emperor had cooking up now a days. He has definitely stayed with the imagery of black metal, it’s darkness and manner of dress, except of course for his makeup, which consists of elf ears and an extremely long nose, which purposefully make him look like some kind of elf king (see him at http://www.mortiis.com/). Influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories of hobbits, elves, wizards, and all, Mortiis takes you on an epic journey, which impressed me quite a bit. This album is pure atmosphere and imagery, sounding a lot like the intros and segues used in a lot of black metal albums, listening to the pounding drums, and epic keyboards you are taken away to land of ruined castles, fierce and honorable battles, and all the other things that I life in Norway can fill your imagination with. This album is beautiful, brilliant, complex, although repetitive at times. “En Sirkel av Kosmisk Kaos (A Circle of Cosmic Chaos)” scared the crap out of me, I was listening to the lush beautiful landscape that Mortiis was painting and all of a sudden this ghoulish growling voice came out of my speaker, which shows this album can take many directions even within a song! I also enjoyed “Vandreren’s Sang (The Song of the Wanderer),” and “Under Tarnets Skygge (Underneath the Shadow of the Tower.)” I personally am more into more aggressive music of course, but this was a nice change of pace for once. I would not recommend this album to a metalhead, or death metalhead, but to some black metallers who injoy later Burzum, and the dark atmosphere of black metal, I would also recommend this album to anyone who appreciates gothic medieval folk music.