Quintessence

Quintessence, Borknagar’s fourth album, was released two years after the underwhelming response to their 1998’s album The Archaic Course. It is a record that rights many of the wrongs of its predecessor (messy and unfocused songwriting; overambitious experimentalism; sub-par production), but that also contains lots of material that falls into averageness and mediocrity, giving the overall impression of an album where Borknagar decided to play it safe. It is not necessarily a bad thing, especially in light of the pas-faux of the previous album. But in a period of burgeoning avant-garde extreme metal, it may be seen as a step back that puts Borknagar in the position of playing catch-up with other purveyors of the genre, like Arcturus, Enslaved or Ulver.

The band underwent a couple of significant line-up changes in the period between The Archaic Course and Quintessence. Ivar Bjørnson, who had played keyboards for Borknagar since the debut album, left to concentrate on his main project Enslaved, while drummer Grim (also with Borknagar since the beginning) sadly passed away of drug overdose. They were replaced respectively by Lars "Lazare" Nedland from Norwegian avant-garde band Solefald and drummer Asgeir Mickelson (Spiral Architect). Bass player Kai K. Lie also walked out, but was not replaced by any new member, as vocalist ICS Vortex doubled up as bassist on Quintessence, instead. With this renewed line-up, in early 2000 Borknagar entered Abyss Studios and recorded the album udner the supervision of Peter Tägtgren.

Sonically, the album takes a half-step back towards the days of The Olden Domain. There are less clean vocals, and more grasps and growls. The music is also simpler and more direct, leaving behind much of the experimentation that one can find on The Archaic Course. The performances are also more streamlined, especially thanks to Mickelson’s tight drumming replacing Grim’s more extravagant style. Newcomer Lars Nedland also makes his presence heard, as the 10 songs of the album are washed with tons of stylish vintage keyboards (Hammond organ, mellotron). Despite these more or less subtle changes, Borknagar’s music direction does not differ much from what the band had proposed on the previous two albums. Centred on Øystein G. Brun’s dense riffs, Quintessence offers a mixture of black metal, folk and avant-garde that bends the rules of extreme metal into more melodic directions.

Tägtgren’s production is good, giving good balance to the various instruments and vocals. If anything, the sound is a tad too balanced, in the sense that none of the instruments stands out particularly on this album and one has to make an effort to figure out the instrumental leads that are being played on the songs. Much of the problem, however, lies in the songwriting and arrangements that are very much nondescript, almost as if Borknagar were afraid to indulge in bold songwriting after the backlash they suffered with the previous album. The result is 10 songs that are fairly bland and lifeless and where it is difficult to find episodes that one gets excited by.

The album starts well, with “Rivalry of Phantoms” and “The Presence Is Ominous” representing two of the strongest tracks of the record. The playing is tight and the music strikes a good balance between aggression, melody and structure, alternating between epic mid-tempos and faster parts. Nedland’s keyboards take centre stage, especially on “The Presence Is Ominous”, and stand out as perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the whole album. Alas, the expectations created by these initial songs are soon disappointed, as the record starts to spin on itself, essentially recycling the same ideas over and over for its whole duration. “Colossus”, with its clean vocals, and “Invincible”, with its death metal vibe, rekindle some interest, but otherwise I find it a bit of a chore to remain fully attentive as the record plays through to its conclusion.

Overall, Quintessence is a decent album that certainly represents an improvement over the messy results of The Archaic Course, but also fails to reach the levels of inspiration and creativeness of The Olden Domain. If you are willing to forgive the somewhat dull and uninspired songwriting, you’ll find things to like here as Borknagar’s sound remains pleasant and enjoyable. But this record does not hold my interest enough to ensure I’ll be playing this very often in the future, as there are better albums of progressive extreme metal out there even from the same period (Enslaved’s Monumension) or from Borknagar themselves.

I always got a sense with Quintessence that Borknagar wanted more of a 'sure thing' alongside their Norwegian peers after the somewhat mixed reactions to The Archaic Course, and to an extent this seemed to me possibly a bit of damage control. At the very least it's a curve back towards some of the sounds we were hearing on the first two records, but with more pronounced snarls and orchestration that were comparable to the material being produced through popular acts like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir at the time. Being that this is Borknagar, of course, we're still getting a lot of the eclectic instrumentation and philosophical sheen they were already known for, multiple vocal styles being arranged throughout and lots of dynamic, progressive shifts that can be felt through Brun's note patterns and the heavily embedded synthesizers that ranged from organs over to more ambient and electronica-tinged pads.

After having such a prominent role on the album before it, ICS Vortex seems to be subdued here, at least his cleaner vocal style. It exists throughout the album, but is too often paired up with the rasp vocals which often end up sounding pretty silly. In fact, there are a lot of synth parts or melodies here that give the impression of a carnival or haunted house, not enough that for it to avoid the fjords of the band's foundation, but I occasionally feel like I'm listening to a more intense, hectic Arcturus and not so much Borknagar. There are still some great, charging Viking pieces here like "Ruins of the Future", which has some amazing melodies, especially the interchange between the synths and guitars. They also throw this filter on the snarls which is horrifying if over the top. "Colossus" is another track I enjoyed, one of the closest callbacks to the previous records, with a nice clean vocal presence and some swinging, swaggering mid-pace riffs. "Invincible" sounds like some badass carousel black metal, and the close "Revolt" has a nice contrast between its own circus-like synths simmering off in the background between the charge of the beat and the rasping.

Otherwise, I think there are a few misfire tracks with some interesting tectonic rhythmic structures that simply don't manifest riffs of high enough quality for them to stand out. The instrumental ditties are a mixed bag, with the prog-goth organ & drum driven "Inner Landscape" sounding like it belongs on La Masquerade Infernale, and "Embers" giving off a "Planet Caravan" like vibe as it leads into the last track. The mix on the album is pretty solid, but I think perhaps some places there are certain instruments or vocals that should have been emphasized or dialed back. This was Lars Nedland's first album with the band, and I think they also overused his keys, just a fraction. I'm a HUGE fan of his, don't mistake me, in both this band and his mainstay Solefald; there are plenty of moments where he shines even here, but the album does come off a bit overcrowded or messy in certain spots. Ultimately, Quintessence is my least favorite of Borknagar's studio efforts apart from the acoustic Origin, but it's still pretty good. There's an EP worth of fantastic material here, and nothing else is necessarily bad, it just doesn't resonate with me as much as the first three albums or many that have arrived later on.

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http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

(Originally posted by me to the Metal Music Archives: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/)

And here stands Quintessence, the last of the three Borknagar albums I got on that one day I mentioned in my previous two Borknagar reviews. But compared to the two other albums by them that I own, this one is the most distinct. It's an impressive archetype to what Borknagar would put out after this album.

It was during this album and The Archaic Course that Øystein Brun would begin bringing musicians in to his project for the long run, all but discarding the supergroup lineup of well known Norwegian black metal musicians. ICS Vortex, who did vocals in The Archaic Course previously, returns' but beyond him, there aren't any relatively well known players here. Grim, sadly, couldn't return to the drums due to his suicide in 1999. His replacement, Asgeir Mickelson, has proved his worth previously in Spiral Architect and plays the drums well in Quintessence. Jens F. Ryland, previously playing second guitar on The Archaic Course, returns to reprise the role on this album. Ivar Bjornson is now gone, and he is replaced by Lars Nedland from the relatively unheard of duo group Solefald who would go on to be a permanent member of Borknagar.

Well, let's see what this new team can do. The folky, nostalgic, old world style of the first two albums are long gone. The Archaic Course brought about a new style of goofy sounding progressive black metal that was definitely weaker than the first two. Quintessence then works on the flaws of The Archaic Course to make an end product that leans much closer to progressive metal than black metal. Vortex's clean vocals are used more often here, and he sounds great...just as long as his voice isn't being fucked with. If there's one negative thing to say about Quintessence, it's that layering the vocals can get somewhat annoying at times. One effect that's really irksome is on "Ruins of the Future" where he sounds like he's doing harsh vocals while his mouth is in a basin full of water and he's blowing bubbles. However, his voice sounds excellent clean and harsh on other likcs like "Colossus", "Icon Dreams", "Genesis Torn", and "Revolt" even if the vocals are layered at certain points.

Even the songs where Vortex's voice doesn't shine, the music is very well composed and makes up for it. The goofy sounding tone of The Archaic Course has been peeled away, opting instead for a return to a more epic sounding tone like in the first two albums. Mind you, the nostalgic old world atmosphere did not get carried over. Instead, it seems that Brun and pals created a new epic atmosphere using the two electric guitars and more prominent use of the keyboards. To assign some describers to this atmosphere, I'd still say they bring up this old world that Brun loves so much; but now it seems like it's got some sort of mystical energy that Borknagar can wield using some sort of sorcery, especially evidenced on "Rivalry of Phantoms" where the lyrics talk about summoning winter, rivers, and the presence of time. Brun has been able to work this angle quite well. There's no acoustic guitar to be found on this album; but having Ryland on second guitar has allowed Brun to play some epic sounding leads, particularly on "Colossus". I do like Lars on keys more than Ivar, and the bigger role the keys play in Borknagar at this point in the band's musical transition is portrayed much better by Lars in Quintessence than by Ivar in The Archaic Course. The keys really shine on "Rivalry of Phantoms", "The Presence is Ominous", "Invincible", and "Genesis Torn".

It's not a perfect album, but Quintessence has so many great things about it that the bad things have been greatly outweighed. Thus, I believe it deserves a top tier ranking. It's a very awesome progressive metal album with black metal influences, and it's Borknagar's second best album in my opinion. Unfortunately, Borknagar is coming close to the end of their golden era. They would still have Empiricism yet to be released; but after that album, they would grow weaker as they would be unable to recreate the magic of these first few albums.

A friend introduced me to Borknagar's The Archaic Course as "black metal you'll actually like." High praise, considering my thoughts on most black metal, but she was right. It really was not full-on black metal, but that did not matter to me because the music was so good and...different. Inspired by how "Ocean's Rise" was stuck in my head for hours, I picked up Quintessence as a blind purchase and waited for winter to come (it may be stereotypical, but I really do enjoy this type of music more when it is cold).

There was a freak snow storm in late October this year (an extreme rarity considering where I live) and I figured that it was finally time to give Quintessence a listen. The first time through was excruciating, but that is pretty normal for many releases I end up enjoying a great deal. Yet subsequent listens were just as painful (and I don't mean in a "so br00tal it is painful" sort of way). It was just boring. The melodies were not memorable, and the riffs and arrangements were far from compelling.

There are keyboards everywhere but the keyboard sounds Lazare chose add nothing and are just obnoxious. They do not sound evil or epic and even the term "proggy" would be a bit of a stretch. I actually like ICS Vortex a lot, for the most part, but here his clean vocals, when they do show up by themselves (as opposed to being simultaneous with harsh vocals) fail to add anything to the song. His growls are horrible.

There is only one worthwhile song on the entire album, which is coincidentally the only song ICS Vortex wrote, "Colossus." It almost sounds out of place and breaks up the monotony. It is actually exciting and goes somewhere. However, even listening to the three previous songs just to get to this one is tedious.

While Quintessence is not laughably bad, it certainly does nothing to justify its existence aside from the aforementioned "Colossus." After the album is over (if one can make it that far) no impression is left. Listeners might be misled at first, thinking that perhaps there is something buried beneath that will reveal itself after numerous listens, but I'll save you the time, there is no reward for those with patience. If a marriage of black metal and progressive metal sounds appealing, look to Borknagar's Universal or The Archaic Course instead.

Up to this point, Borknagar had proven to be a pretty good metal band. Yes, the self-titled debut was the only black metal effort by the band. Some say that one is the only good one and although it may stand leagues ahead of the following albums, the second and third had established themselves as strong metal albums. “The Olden Domain” and “The Archaic Course” were very good progressive metal albums with black metal influences. Unfortunately, all that ends with “Quintessence”.

Vocally, this album struggles. Not that Vortex is a bad vocalist; he is actually one of the best singers in metal. But here, he is not utilized to his full potential. As I said, Vortex is one of the best singers in metal, but his singing on this album is skimpy. “Quintessence” sees him use his harsh vocals way too much. This would be okay if he was a sufficient harsh vocalist but that fact of the matter is he lacks harsh vocal ability. He is weak, and is too croaky. He is very deficient in fullness, feeling and enthusiasm. It sounds like he either does not know how to perform them, or like he doesn’t care enough to enforce his full power into it.

Voretx does not just perform feeble harsh vocals, he also sings here too. This is the only highlight of “Quintessence”. He sings in a high tenor pitch and is semi-operatic. He has gorgeous vocals, but he does sound a little goofy due to his accent. This does not harm his clean vocals though. The only problem with his clean vocals here is the fact that they a sparsely used. Due to this, “Colossus” and “Revolt” are the only good songs on this album. I hate to say that Borknagar can’t play music without Vortex carrying the band, but they seriously can’t on this album.

This album is hardly metal due to the guitar, keyboard and drums. All three of these instruments are played in a progressive rock style. Up to this point, Borknagar had done a good job keeping a metal sound. “Quintessence” fails to be metal despite the raucous harsh vocals from Vortex. It is very possible to play rock with harsh vocals and Borknagar pulls it off here. I’m not condemning rock music, but I personally like to have a singer with my rock rather than a harsh vocalist.

The guitars are very progressive sounding. Bands like Opeth come to mind when listening to the guitars here. However, they do not sound as good as Opeth because they are played in a progressive rock way. All riffs seem to have a southern rock influence. Oystein Brun must have written his guitar parts while listening to a lot of rock. The guitars are hardly distorted and riffs are lackluster.

The keyboards are really 70’s. They are very progressive sounding with solos and all that. If you like 70’s rock, then the keyboards might work for you, but they personally drive me insane. The keys seriously take the listener to the seventies and have that druggy environment.

The drum work is also not a highlight. The drummer plays in a rock style with no time signature changes and no blast beats. He just keeps the rocky flow and does not stand out at all.

The best two songs are “Colossus” and “Revolt”. The other songs are very dull progressive rock songs with harsh vocals. They seem to all run together in one big blur. I can’t even remember anything from songs like “Ruins of the Future” or “Genesis Torn”. “Colossus” kicks ass with a nice chorus and well written music. It has a guitar solo at the end that sounds like southern rock, but it doesn’t ruin it. “Revolt” is a nice song with good singing from Vortex. It is rock structured like “Colossus”, but it works with these two due to the use of clean vocals.

This album fails as a metal album in many senses. It is a shame because it destroys a perfectly good album containing Vortex on lead vocals. Borknagar picks up Vintersorg after this album and he does absolutely nothing good with the band (IMO). Therefore, Borknagar’s last good album was “The Archaic Course” and they have never put out another good one since. “Quintessence” is the start of the decline, so don’t waste your money on it.

Quintessence is worlds beyond Borknagar's previous album on nearly every level. The Archaic Course was good on its own mark, but Quintessence lives up to its name; it is the album that saw the band come into their own individual style. Not only have the band pushed themselves on a level of heaviness and musicianship, but have gotten consistently more progressive, experimental, and daring in their craft.

The first thing that will jump out at the listener is the fact that the band are more focused and cunning in the metal aspect of their sound. Everything seems more clear-cut and direct than previous offerings, which would ironically give the overall sound a huge boost. Whereas the previous album seemed a bit more relaxed and drifting in its more atmospheric scope, Quintessence is more aggressive and will confront the listener with its towering, almost intimidating motif. Borknagar proved themsleves to be a full-fledged epic metal monster here. Things in the songwriting department are much more straight-forward, but the progressive edge is not lost. In fact, the band have taken their prog tendencies to a new level by trying out new things within the more linear song structures. The number one example of this is the keyboards, which are featured prominently in every song. ("Inner Landscape" is a drum/keyboard interlude that shows the continuing progression of classical flair in the band's sound.) "Ruins of the Future" uses epic choirs, while the ripping opener "Rivalry of Phantoms" brings back the off-the-wall organs that were seen on the previous album's heavier tunes.

Oystein continues to push himself and his abilities to the extreme. "Genesis Torn" and "Ruins of the Future" are probably some of the heaviest numbers the band have written, while leaving plenty of room for atmosphere through the sullen closer "Revolt" and the short interlude "Inner Landscape." "Ruins of the Future" uses fiery tremolo picking on the main riff, while "Colossus" utilizes ummm.... colossal... lead guitars for the main melody. The weird elements in Oystein's playing techniques are still used here, but are used in a more subtle manner to give the songs a more dramatic flair. Quite a few solos make an appearance, too. There are plenty of tiny nuances and hidden melodies to be found here, and the guitars are layered to only heighten the mood created during the songs, which helps things out and gives this album a more personal feel.

The drum work is probably what boosts the band so much here. I know that a new drummer was brought in for this album, and he succeeds on damn near every level. Blastbeats are in full swing here, but are never overused. "Ruins of the Future" is such a case, and the heavy-as-hell drums make this song probably the best on the album. Cascading tom fills are seen more often here, and help to bring out the more technical approach to the songs. There are many progressive touches here, and the drums succeed at staying with the demanding, narrative song structures.

Vortex evolved far more than I believed he would. His clean vocals have more emotion behind them now, as seen on "Colossus" and "Revolt." The vocal melodies are catchy and epic, and the layering of vocals helps things out. His range has expanded as well, as he succesfully pulls off the higher pitches that were a bit iffy on The Archaic Course. Also, his screams are more matured, and he even pulls off some gutteral growls on "Genesis Torn." Vortex certainly left the band with a big bang, because this comes close to topping anything he has done with Arcturus or Dimmu Borgir.

The production is a huge step up. It's that classic Abyss sound: huge, pounding, drums; thick, meaty guitar distortion; highly articulate bass; and plenty of reverb on the vocals. Some say that the production hampers the density and layering in the songs, but I think it suits the more sophisticated nature of it perfectly compared to the sharper, trebly sound of Empiricism.

If there is one Borknagar album to recommend, it's definitely this one. This shows Borknagar at their finest and most ambitious hour, when they really came to be the band they are today.

Favorite tracks: "Ruins of the Future," "Colossus," "Revolt."

'Quintessence’ is the fourth album by Norwegian progressive black metal band Borknagar, from Bergen. If that’s a bit of a mouthful, it essentially means they spawned from Bergen’s prominent and often infamous black metal scene in the early 90s, but evolved to incorporate more of a folk and progressive rock influence into their music, to the point that their most recent album ‘Origin’ is entirely acoustic. No, that hasn’t straightened anything out, has it? Well I tried.

For this particular album, the band intentionally reverted a little to their black metal roots, and abandoned much of the folk influence for space-age sounding keyboards. Vocalist ICS Vortex, as he likes to be called, makes his second and final appearance here before moving on to join Dimmu Borgir, and although his excellent singing style is heard on several songs, it’s primarily substituted for a more standard black metal growl. This sounds similar to the ‘death grunt’ you may have heard from larger death metal bands, but mixed with a Popeye impersonation. In any case, it sounds a lot better coming from Vortex than his contemporaries. The guitars and drums also play faster for the most part, the afore-mentioned keyboards providing excellent background atmosphere and really filling out the sound despite the intentionally reduced production standard, even being granted a solo spot for track five. It seems that the band wanted to produce a really dirty sounding black metal album in the vein of Mayhem, but didn’t have the heart to really kill the instruments.

1. The Rivalry of Phantoms
2. The Presence is Ominous
3. The Ruins of Future
4. Colossus
5. Inner Landscape
6. Invincible
7. Icon Dreams
8. Genesis Torn
9. Embers
10. Revolt

At forty minutes, this appears on the surface to be an entirely standard black metal release, with little to distinguish it. While Borknagar’s sound is one of the most distinctive within black metal, progressive metal, and whatever other genres they belong to (folk metal and Viking metal spring to mind. There’s more to this metal lark than you thought, isn’t there?), this album is admittedly repetitive. The template for most songs seems to be a fast riff on the guitars and drums, slightly under-produced and ever so slightly generous on the treble, with Vortex either growling or singing over the top. There’s usually a slight interlude of either a guitar solo or keyboard wash before the song kicks in again, and ends before the five minute mark. There are some excellent exceptions to be found in the middle of the album, and indeed much of this album’s value lies in the incredible song ‘Colossus.’ Vortex sings with pure viking metal force over an epic soundscape of mid-range guitar, measured drum blasts and, of course, the old trick of using the keyboard to pretend this song was recorded in space. It actually works here, to some extent. After this seminal number comes the afore-mentioned keyboard solo spot with the short but interesting ‘Inner Landscape,’ which tries a little too hard to convince the listener of the outer space thing and ends up falling on its face, allowing the spotlight to fall rightfully back to the other instruments, the synthesiser quietly resuming its background duties with a promise never to do that sort of thing again.

The album opens with the violent ‘Rivalry of Phantoms,’ a cool speedy metal song that’s almost pure black metal, aside from the constant presence of those proggy keyboards. Vortex’s growls are ferocious, and backed up superbly by the high screeching guitars that are at least memorable afterwards. Rather than continuing in this intended direction, the second song reverts to the grander style of the previous album, but remains just as impressive as its predecessor. Space-age keyboards are replaced with a slightly more traditional, medieval-Norway sounding instrument similar to that found in purist bands like Ulver and Empyrium, and although the pace is slowed, this song still remains pretty similar to the rest. Vortex’s singing takes centre stage, and sounds really good. They should have used it more, especially in light of his imminent departure.

The rest of the album really does follow this pattern to the point of tedium, which would be expected for most other bands but disappoints considering Borknagar’s usual higher standard. From ‘Invincible’ to ‘Genesis Torn,’ excluding the two songs already discussed, the vocals rotate from growling to clean for every other song, and the tempo is all pretty much the same. There’s very little chance that anything from tracks three, six, seven or eight will be memorable even if this album were listened to on multiple occasions, though there are occasional pleasant touches like a return of the archaic-sounding keyboards in ‘Genesis Torn.’ None of these songs are inherently bad or boring, it’s just their position on this album that reduces their impact.

Perhaps suspecting that things were becoming a bit repetitive and that subtle changes might not get noticed, the band grabs the listener’s attention in the penultimate track by offering a slow and melodic semi-acoustic instrumental. This nicely sets the tone for the excellent closing song ‘Revolt,’ the most openly progressive song on the album and one that’s more like the more impressive material the band would produce with new vocalist Vintersong on their next two albums. Black metal growls are still present, as they were even in ‘Colossus,’ but take a major back seat. At six minutes this is the longest song, but not too long to become dull. The instrumental changes towards the end are really impressive, and the album manages to leave the listener wanting more, something that would not have been possible had it ended on any of the earlier tracks. Every once in a while, this album really gets things right.

Had this been reduced to an E.P. consisting of the first two tracks, ‘Colossus,’ and then the closing two tracks, I would award it about 90%. As a forty-minute album it scores less, and even that’s a bit generous when compared to the far more excellent Borknagar material that’s out there. The instrumentation is still precise and technically impressive, but there’s not enough variation in the song style, structure, subject matter and the general way everything sounds. For casual metal fans who enjoy the occasional taste of Bergen black metal, this album offers some great songs for listening every once in a while but is a bit of a chore to sit through in its entirety. Plus, ICS Vortex is the second greatest vocalist they’ve ever had.

Borknagar is an original sounding band and thus will put some people off. It's clear that the previous reviewers weren't familiar with Borknagar in the least and still aren't. By glancing at the reviews on their other albums, it might appear as though Borknagar had changed something and that this CD was to be avoided. On the contrary, this is quite up to par with their previous albums. The only album of theirs that is somewhat different is their self-titled debut CD which has less progressive moments and is generally more similar to standard black metal. The reason this CD has these negative reviews is that this CD is easier to find in stores and probably their most poplular. So, it's reasonable that a couple of people would hear that this is just a black metal band and see it in a store and give it a go.

One thing about Borknagar is that it often takes a few listens to really sink in. At first, I wasn't really a big fan of them either. However after a few listens they began to grow on me and suddenly they were one of my favorite bands. Whilemany black metal bands value simplicity and use it on purpose, Borknagar values its complexity. Thus, it can take a few listens to truly grasp everything that is going on in this CD. There isn't a single track on this CD that I dislike so I won't bother going through each song. If you like black metal and you also like progressive then you may want to try this band. If you're stuck in the notion that black metal can't succeed with progressive elements, then this probably isn't for you. Just give the CD a chance before you decide to pollute a review section with quick judgements.