Fortid - Völuspá Part III: Fall of the Ages

FORTID - Völuspá Part III: Fall of the Ages (SCHWARZDORN Productions - CD 2010)

A few years ago I came across this band by accident and I have to admit that I liked their music right away. This relatively little-known (and definitely very underrated) project from Iceland plays very solid and interesting viking / black metal – of however you’re gonna name it, although that “viking” theme is pretty important here. And they really do match my preferences, when speaking of this sort of music, which is a good mixture of aggressive and vicious black metal with more epic, monumental sound and harsh riffage accompanied by a bit of melody and stuff like that. "Völuspá Part III: Fall of the Ages" was released in 2010, so few years have passed since it came out, but it still sounds very well and I have actually been spinning this CD like crazy for past few days, what also gave me an idea to write this short review. 

And you know what? I am quite surprised that such a good band spent all these years in a small label like Schwarzdorn, whose work and promotional possibilities must be rather limited. It's a shame, because Fortid deserves much more than they already achieved. Anyway, I already shortly described "Völuspá Part III: Fall of the Ages" as melodic, yet aggressive, epic, but vicious viking / black metal. Stylistically it could be compared maybe to Windir, Kampfar, Moonsorrow, even Manegarm, but at the same time they're different from each of them. It's interesting that Fortid music is very guitar based, so keyboards presence is rather sporadic and they never play a dominant role. The same is with vocals, which mostly are harsh screams, but clean vocals appear here and there as well for more majestic feel. But really, it's good to listen to such music, with all its diversity, amazing number of killer riffs, ideas and that atmosphere of old ages. Diversity is one of the key factors here, because Fortid is not afraid to shift between different parts, have a blasting, aggressive song here and later very harmonious, melancholic part with sorrowful, clean vocals. Just compare "Ragnarök Army from the East (Austursins heimsenda her)" with all its viciousness and "The Future (Framtíð)" which is the slowest, most melodic song of the album. 

But first it was "Ancient Halls (Fornir salir)", which caught my attention the most. This is a wonderful instrumental piece, with very bleak atmosphere and one of the best riffs on the album. The best song though in my opinion is "Equilibrium Reclaimed (Jafnvægi endurheimt)" - a real Nordic song, filled with epic, enchanting harmonies and insanely good clean vocals. If you dig all these monumental songs from Manegarm, Tyr or Windir, then you better check this beauty out also. "The Future (Framtíð)” is next to be mentioned, as it’s a ten minutes long masterpiece full of great melodies (again), a lot of diversity as well, including acoustic guitar, so it’s mesmerizing and as dark as the helheim. 

On the other side of the spectrum, "New Dawn (Ný dögun)" is for me the weakest part of the album. Technically there’s nothing wrong about this song, but it’s maybe a tiny bit too soft and progressive this time, especially the vocals and the whole Borknagar – like sound of this track. Not something what would majorly bother me, it doesn’t ruin the final result, but it’s just one part of "Völuspá Part III: Fall of the Ages", which I don’t need. In the end I need to mention also lyrics, which are based on the Nordic mythology – Ragnarok in this case – which are always awesome to read (lyrics are in Icelandic, but there are some notes for them all). Yeah... all in all, "Völuspá Part III: Fall of the Ages" was a pleasure to listen to and I can only recommend Fortid to you all. Killer viking / black metal, worth checking out. 

Standout tracks: "Equilibrium Reclaimed (Jafnvægi endurheimt)", "The Future (Framtíð)”, "Ragnarök Army from the East (Austursins heimsenda her)" 

Verdict: 80/100