Narkissos (Gate)

With their seventh full-length entitled "Narkissos", Fortid have finally delivered a masterpiece that should easily make it into the top part of those end of the year lists. The Icelandic trio has not even changed much, they are just doing everything even better than before. Fortid forge melodic riffing from black, death, thrash, and heavy metal threads into one sharp weapon. The Icelanders don't care about any particular genre, but focus entirely on writing excellent songs. As a result "Narkissos" features nine catchy and fiery metal anthems. Fortid determined the musical coordinates of their long journey with the ambitious "Völuspá" album trilogy, which was released from 2003 to 2010. Their early combination of harsh black and death metal riffing with a pinch of thrash and a penchant for epic melodies, versatile vocals as well as a heavy dose of "Icelandic sound" was continuously refined on the acclaimed "Pagan Prophecies" (2012) full-length and the following "9" (2015) album. With the dark and deadly "World Serpent" (2020), Fortid charted the current course that led via the two-track EP "Domur um daudan hvern" (2022) straight to "Narkissos". Lyrically, Fortid remain on an Old Norse and pagan course. Gudmundsson has woven a yarn in a Nordic context about a character with the so-called narcissistic personality disorder that runs as a red thread through "Narkissos". Fortid present a contemporary metal album that is both musically and lyrically taking the Icelanders to a new peak, and by firmly placing substance over style will find it's audience.