NORTHR - The Catastrophe Of >
Self Destructive Mentality
Fluttering Dragon is back again! A Polish cult label that started in 1996 and ceased action in 2006. Some acts from Cold Meat Industry continued on Fluttering Dragon, Ildfrost, Nordvagr, and Puissance. And now Fluttering Dragon has been re-activated with a string of cool releases!
One of them is a Norwegian dark-ambient project called NORTHR. NORTHR means going northwards in the old Norse language. The title of the album is "The Catastrophe Of A Self-Destructive Mentality", and by the looks of the cover artwork itself... we´re probably dealing with something about the ongoing end for mankind, that we are ourselves guilty of destroying ourselves... through war, pollution, greed, lust for power, etc... The kind of depressing stuff that we have done since we used an animal bone as an upgraded weapon.
The album comes as a nice-looking 6-paneled digipack, with some thorough graphics attached to it. A long red picture on the front, and a grey picture on the inside, both pictures following the apocalyptic sort of theme/concept. 9 tracks, almost 50 minutes in total length.
The first track is called Rouge Planet, which offcourse means... Red Planet like Mars. And Mars (as we know) is a barren and desolate place, a place where... there has been life once... but then it was (probably) bombarded with meteorites. Maybe our Earth would be a red planet, after several atomic explosions offcourse. A quiet and spacy ambient drone lifts the listener up, whereupon we can see the red planet. Excellent epic and heavenly atmosphere with a subtle and saddened synth melody in the background, kind of a Terminator soundtrack vibe here... which is a plus in my book.
The second track is called The Laughter. Desolation, ash, and a thick fog covering the land itself. A recognizable CMI sound is present, that sort of Sephiroth or Desiderii Marginis sound. A distant thumbing pulse, like goblins beating on drums in the distant mines offcourse. A beautiful and haunting synth melody mixed nicely into the murky drones and various subtle sounds. Very well done. Very smooth and very... streamlined so far, but still highly enjoyable.
The third track Principium of Fire, really interesting track here... and kind of simple but complex at the same time. And again, a very sad piece... but with the sort of light at the end of the tunnel. No, it´s not completely death-industrial here! Actually kind of majestic and dreamy. Love the metallic rhythmic sounds here, everything here is beautifully woven together. Pure magick in how the melody works in these weightless ambient soundscapes!
The fourth track Anamorphosis starts with a deep humming-horn sort of windy sound, with some additional extra ritualistic elements to back it up. Again with a cool synth melody and some additional subtle martial rhythms in the distance. The whole thing has a lovely organic feel to it, every sound is in the right place.
The fifth track Warmachine gives the listener the impression of witnessing something... very large and impressive... and scary as well. Grandeurs and beautiful, but also impressively disturbing. That´s right, I´m getting the religious a-bomb feeling here! I don´t know if the artist thought about the a-bomb here, but I definitely do.
The sixth track After the War, has that kind of mood of what is left after... the a-bomb has done its job. An act of crime against life itself, a marked area cursed by blight and radiation. Whatever will come, with wither and perish. Might just be the most sad track on the album, but again... with just a tiny dose of hope (again).
The rest of the album follows the aesthetic. In a really perfect way, storytelling kind of melodies with the extra sound and ambient elements to it. It was meant to be enjoyed, and yeah... I enjoyed it very much. Actually (I must admit) that I ended up hearing it... many times! It´s a very simple album but also has a kind of interesting complexity to it. I was kind of skeptical in the start because I'm a (bit) sort of fed up with the whole apocalyptic sort of concept. Most apocalyptic stuff has that sorry-ass kind of attitude (I think), but... I kind of like the idea of adding a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, it´s pretty daring (I know) but I actually think it kind of works very well here. That´s why I'm getting that, Terminator soundtrack sort of vibe. It´s pretty bleak, but there is always a means to escape that (or confront it!). Highly recommendable for any fans of ... soundtrack for dystopian movies or computer games. Everything is very well done on this album. I have only one bad thing to say, it does tend to feel like the same thing track after track... the same sort of means of action (if you know what I mean). But, the overall quality of it all overweight the chosen conceptual monotony.
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