Fons Immortalis

"Fons Immortalis", this latest release from Nuclear War Now! Productions, is a 2020 reissue of material first released back in 1997 by Merciless Records. The original extended play included six tracks, the first three of which were recorded in 1996, and the other three – even earlier, in 1995, and originally they were Vulpecula's first demo, "Phoenix of the Creation", but after partial re-recording and remixing they were included in "Fons Immortalis" as legitimate part. So, except "Fons Immortalis" itself, the NWN! version of EP contains the debut demo in its original form, and also an alternative version of "The First Point of Aries" (the second track from "Phoenix of the Creation") as bonus. That is why, although the length of the release has almost doubled, we are talking on the same six tracks.

Both parts (of the original release) open with dark ambient tracks – "Astride the Darklands" and "Phoenix of the Creation" respectively. More likely both compositions would do honor to any electronic musician: they are energy- and emotion-intensive, well structured, and quite harmonious. In full concordance with the project's space theme, the tracks are filled with various "space sounds", but if "Astride the Darklands" is performed in the spirit of, maybe, Tangerine Dream, then "Phoenix of the Creation", a little ritualistic piece, more resembles Endvra. There is one more difference: the impression is that "Astride the Darklands" is downright filled with universal longing (yep), while "Phoenix of the Creation" is still more atmospheric than melancholic track.

At any rate, "Astride the Darklands" sets the tone for the metal tracks of "its" half: both tracks, "Fons Immortalis" and "Down Among Them", start with slow riffing. So, yes, a strong influence of doom metal makes itself felt here, but basically it's nothing more than old school death metal. Of course, old school, back then there was no other death metal. There is something of Bolt Thrower's drive in these unperturbed riffs with a hint of melodic elements. But essentially this is a rather original riffage. And although both songs speed up somewhere in the second half, a shade of sadness still does not disappear from the riffs, so these are rather phlegmatic tracks even in their fast parts. Perhaps, unlike Order from Chaos and Ares Kingdom, the Vulpecula project embodied the "lyrical" component of Chuck Keller's creativity. Yes, there is no aggression in Vulpecula's music at all – there is (universal) longing and a sense of (interstellar) search.

On the other hand, by stretching a point, the fast parts can even be classified as black metal, old-school, too, not of "the Norwegian league", but rather of the Southern one (i. e. black metal bands from Italy and Greece are implied). The whispered vocals are muffled in the mix, but they enhance the black metal feeling. The drummer has a passion for intense fills and breaks, well, on the slow parts, this manner brings a sense of cosmic chaos. Both songs contain solos that are a bit chaotic, too, but not as wild as of Order From Chaos, and as an antidote they have some melodic line. Anyway, "Down Among Them" fades out with a classic death metal technique, right, pinched harmonics.

The second part of "Fons Immortalis", that is, the revised "Phoenix of the Creation" demo, has a more explicit black metal base, at least "The First Point of Aries", – maybe something in the spirit of early Samael. The closing song "Seven Layers of Light" is built on a piercing riff, and here we can talk about returning back to the beginning: perhaps this song can be described as Order From Chaos mixed with doom metal again, and yes, universal longing is also present here. The harsh vocals in this (re)mix are much louder and more intelligible than in previous songs, furthermore they are more "black metal-ish" with their roughness. Both songs also have guitar solos, but this time it's a heavy / thrash metal classic. And although both "The First Point of Aries" and "Seven Layers of Light" have a simpler structure, – one might even say that these are minimalist tracks, – with their drive and dynamics they are no less interesting than the first part of the original EP.

And in its turn the original version of "Phoenix of the Creation" is interesting from the position that the sound here is thick and corpulent: compared to it the revised version has the fairly dry production. But the vocals are really bad here: firstly they are whispered again, secondly they are blurred and cavernous, it is almost impossible to make them out. Definitely, most of the work during the remixing process had to be done with the vocals, and perhaps the general sound had to be sacrificed to improve vocal part. The solos are pretty squashed in the mix, they are not as audible as on "Fons Immortalis". And thanks to all this, these two songs, "The First Point of Aries" and "Seven Layers of Light", sound more "black metal-ish". While the alternative version of "The First Point of Aries" turned out to be even more "black metal-ish", well, the more raw sound brought out the source of inspiration – undoubtedly, this is Bathory (of course, early), both musically and vocally. Bathory, not Samael.

Summary. "Fons Immortalis" is rather unusual old-school death metal, but black metal wins back lost positions very often here. The songs maintain a space atmosphere established by the ambient parts. Due to the different mix, some songs are very interesting to listen to twice, or even three times. Without a shadow of a doubt, this recording is not only of historical interest, but also of musical one.

The Metal Observer