This is my first encounter with this Pagan / Folk / Black Metal band originated in Iceland, but now located in Norway, and it’s a great surprise. The band plays an epic form of Black Metal with many references to epic BATHORY, some ENSLAVED with the obvious DARKTHRONE and slight early BURZUM touch. There are quite a lot of wicked melodies in all of the songs, and the Folk passages come in form of clean vocals, which contrast to the more traditional Black Metal voices. An interesting fact is that they usually start in a fast tempo, but the band sounds better in a mid-tempo tone, and there is a lot of traditional Heavy Metal music (or maybe even Power Metal) in some of the riffs that can be heard. The cover art in this case has a strong relation with what we can hear, and even if the songs are done in what I think is their native language, it all fits very well. An interesting release, those fans of the more blackened Metal of the Folk and epic kind, will surely appreciate. Great recording and production values by the way. www.facebook.com/fortid, www.schwarzdorn.de