ALBUM REVIEW: Fall – Borknagar

BORKNAGAR might’ve been born at the backend of black metal’s second wave in the mid-90s, but the course they’ve set sail on over nearly three decades and 12 albums travels further than the genre’s rigid confines. If 2016’s Winter Thrice was the blueprint, and 2019’s True North the prototype, 12th album Fall is the unveiling of their progressive black metal masterpiece.

Soundtracking the human struggle and survival against nature, Fall is a multi-dimensional journey through the mountainscapes of Norway. Opener Summits is a sweeping cinematic shot of mountain regions unfolding in your eardrums; espresso-sized wailing howls and harmonic cleans drizzle off into heaping honeypots of thickly-woven dissonance. That’s about as traditional black metal as Fall gets, and it’s all the better for going off the beaten track. 

Nordic Anthem’s tribal percussion and hypnotic harmonies see you descend into the mysterious depths of the mountains, echoing the nomadic desert blues of TINARIWEN. Rather than explode like fireworks in the night, Nordic Anthem lives and breathes like the Northern Lights’ swirling rivers of light; its quiet, sombre moments erupt into a chorus so anthemic you’d see it sung in stadiums, showcasing the sheer depth that ICS Vortex and Lazare’s dual-vocals have given BORKNAGAR visionary Øystein G. Brun to play with.

Afar is your moment to feel out the mountainous regions you’re making home in, as the experimental fierceness of BATHORY bleeds into the silky, synthy hinterlands DREAM THEATER create; Moon’s double-bass drums and dissonant riffs flood your eardrums like a wildfire spreading through the forests before Brun and Jostein Thomassen cool the burning blasts with solos straight from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal playbook.

Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow’s blast beats are supernovas colliding in the night sky as ICS Vortex sets the Stars Ablaze, before Unraveling does just that to their tapestry of sounds, symbolising how nature adapts and evolves to counter humanity by commandingly straddling both MASTODON’s Crack The Skye and Hushed & Grim eras simultaneously. The Wild Lingers does just that; plucking strings conducted operatically as if a living, breathing forest speaks to your soul, before the nearly-10 minute closer Northward is a kaleidoscope of sharp dissonance, blistering blast beats and howling vocals, as if the elements are at war.

By the time its nearly hour-long runtime wraps up, you’re fully submerged in nature’s grasp. Your mind is left lingering on the many food-for-thought lyrics Fall offers long after it ends. At once, this album is deliciously dark yet hauntingly hopeful, summarised emphatically on Nordic Anthem: “The north wind whispers in our ears / Old tales of hardship, of hopes and fears / We fought to forge our own destiny / Now we stand strong for the world to see” — the question you’re left battling with though is who’s left standing strong, humanity or nature?

Fall is the masterful culmination of nearly three decades of work, a testament to the dedication of Brun and BORKNAGAR at large to pushing black metal’s envelopes beyond its cavernous boundaries. Now, where will they take us next?

Rating: 9/10

Fall is set for release on February 23rd via Century Media Records.

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