Métal Noir Épique Ambiant Québécois trio Forteresse are, it seems, Quebec Nationalists but with a Drudkh style no lyrics no press release offered, what exactly this entails I have no real idea beyond their record label telling me that “Forteresse stands proud to oppose the degeneration of its homeland....Metal Noir Québécois stand as an hommage to ancient traditions and to all those that long to see the banner of liberty rise at last. PATRIOTIC, EPIC BLACK METAL.”
Just so you know.
Forteresse an ambient black metal project from Moribond, Athros and drummer Fiel who between them seem to be involved in a fair section of the Québécois scene. Back in the day when Bathory and Celtic Frost were hacking this Black metal beast into unlife, and Mayhem, Emperor and Burzum were turning it feral who would have thought that we'd be so comfortable with such a concept as ambient Black Metal?
This is their third full length since 2006, the title of which I think roughly translates as By High Woods and Vast Plains, echoing that first Carpathian Forest mini album title Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods, and sporting one of those evocative, grim old school black and white photos of a misty forest skyline which I still think are cool.
This is slow, almost funeral doom styled black metal, the cold melody drifting on keyboards of the guitar distortion, ponderous, ominous drumming and the occasional haunted scream way off there in the woods themselves.
It is as you'd hope misty and mournful stuff that builds its atmosphere about you like a frost bitten blanket. It takes influence from Burzum circa Filosofem as you might expect, but relies less on a caustic buzzsaw guitar sound and more on those epic keyboards and the steady echoing drumbeat. A little touch of early, forgotten Mortiis like Crypt Of The Wizard here and there in the whispered, almost naive melody repetition, a thin thread of Norrt maybe too: winds blow through the trees, darkness falls and we are alone here.
Ambient is a tricky thing. Atmosphere to one listener is dull, plodding looping keyboards to others. Forteresse very much exist in the ten minute keyboard refrain with short interludes style but with the album only weighing in at around thirty minutes they rarely stretch things out beyond a natural length. So does it create a landscape, an atmosphere that is unique? Well, yes and no.
There is a real air of class to it and the production doesn't let those keyboards slide so slick that you can't feel the cold bite beneath but, for me it is too continuous a plain that it leads you to; one tempo, one refrain per song and an album that simply begins and ends rather than describes a place. I have, and have heard, Norwegian, US and even UK music so similar that you couldn't tell which country one originates from and for a band apparently so passionate about their homeland as Forteresse this seems a little bit of a let down. It just isn't evocative enough somehow.
That's the downside. The upside is that it is a piece of music I can chill out to. I find it... comforting somehow. Don't be fooled; I find Skepticism's 'Stormcrowfleet', Norrt's 'Galgenfrist' or in an urban place Ulver's 'Perdition City' comforting too. Not comfortable, but reassuring. It is not in their class by any stretch, but still like those early Mortiis albums it fits into a niche and a corner when I want to fill it with a sound. So for all its shortcomings and if I'm honest, lack of a truly distinct identity I do kind of like it and am intrigued enough to want to hear more.
http://www.myspace.com/forteresse
