Although ‘Endeligt’ is not commonly seen as Nortt’s best or most compelling album, yet for me this 2017-released piece of work was monumental. For me it is a near-perfect blend of the bleakness, desolation and utter gloom of Funeral Doom and the darkness and misanthropy of Black Metal. With the formation of this one-man band three decades ago, Nortt firmly established its name in this musical environment, basically a niche-in-a-niche. Each of the band’s recordings are basically an entity on their own, behemoth’s in their own respective rights and none of them is really inferior to the other, making Nortt a frighteningly consistent band.
With ‘Dødssang’ Nortt delivers its fifth full-length album ending an almost eight year silence. And just as with ‘Endeligt’, that came a full decade after its predecessor, ‘Dødssang’ hits you like a hammer blow. Nothing really changes in terms of the band’s musical DNA, but still, the sheer intensity of the slowness and all-consuming darkness is something you can never fully prepare for. In a way, it might even be easier if you’ve never set foot on Nortt’s soil before.
Again, the evolution that’s increasingly tilting Nortt to a more Funeral Doom band, is continued on ‘Dødssang’, even further disbanding the band’s more Black Metal roots. With a prominent role for the piano, leading the mournful melodies, Nortt slowly but surely drifts further into the bottomless wells dug by bands like Thergothon, Evoken, Worship and Tyranny. Yet traces, echoes and bits and pieces of the more somber kind of Black Metal can be found in the dark and dreary sound palette.
If you indeed happen to be new to the game here, it depends from what angle you are approaching Nortt to at least be as much prepared as possible. If you are coming from a Funeral Doom back ground, the step is considerably smaller: imagine a overwhelming blend of Skepticism and Worship and you’ll have an idea. If you came down the Black Metal route, you could take early Xasthur as the most obvious comparison, but you should replace the shallow and icy guitar sound for something much more crushing, thunderous even, but on an equally sluggish pace. But, make no mistake, these are only indications of what awaits you, in the end there is really only one Nortt and it will mercilessly and unforgivingly draw you into its never-ending depths.
With the small amount of bands in this particular niche-in-a-niche genre as well as in its rather narrow musical framework, it is maybe not too easy to prevent drawing particular parallels with other bands. Yet, if over those thirty years of existence, Nortt has proven something, it is that with a determined and strong musical vision and a good dose of persistency, along with the necessary talent, your dreams lead you to uniqueness on a solitary level.
