Nortt
Ligfaerd

When we bow our heads to abuses not because we fear revenge from above, but because we lack the courage to stand out; when our legs tremble at school as we approach the teacher's desk, ready to put an end to our dignity: in each of these moments where the image of our impotence manifests, the muffled notes of Nortt's piano thunderously echo, covering every word we haven't spoken, every gesture left unfinished.

I've already spoken extensively about Nortt's music elsewhere; a leaden and foggy doom-black metal that doesn't undergo too many changes even in this record: instead, there is an extremization of formulas that seemed overused in Gudsforladt. The riffs are taken to a level no one has ever approached before: they are deconstructed and fragmented, almost sad in their new nakedness; the guitar sound is saturated and full of reverberations. The melodic passages are now reduced to a succession of chords, note after note, increasingly distant from each other.

The music, as mentioned, hasn't changed significantly: it has simply become much better; reaching rare levels according to the writer.

What has changed is the spirit behind the notes: in Xasthur and Leviathan, a sense of angry participation in life is perceptible. The Californians sing with images of joy before their eyes. The joy of others, which they want to erase, or perhaps make their own. It's not clear.
The Danish Nortt, on the other hand, represents the next stage, when there's no more room for struggle, for hate, for passion. Even every cemetery reminiscence seems vanished compared to previous albums.

The record now acquires an almost metaphysical character, shifting towards more cerebral sounds, at times dark ambient, always intangible: the music dictates the "rhythms" of this new philosophy and in turn is contaminated by this philosophy of decay. The voice emerges from below, briefly, and then dives back into darkness. One or two piano notes from afar give hope for a change: as in life, it never happens. At certain moments, the bells of a nearby church can be heard ringing, and there is an urge to run towards salvation (which, being in a black metal album, sounds a bit ironic). Then everything ends.

Nortt reaches a point where he can afford to set his own school, without needing to cite anyone in particular, without needing to vary much from track to track: this formula will later be picked up by many imitators, in Italy (Urna) and around the world (Elysian Blaze), albeit with lesser results. Ligfaerd remains one of the mandatory milestones for the genre's evolution, both concerning the concept of Crossover (here understood in the noble sense of "fusion of styles"), and for the side linked to more Depressive sounds.

Why Nortt?

Because inside, each one of us hates themselves, at least a little. But now it's time for everyone to return to their normality, so deeply permeated by that same void perceived among the notes of "Ligfaerd"... 

 "The highest mountain in Italy?" - "Mount Blanc" - "Should we lock it in?" - "We'll lock it in"........

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"Pietro, you've been nominated" - "It doesn't matter, I came to challenge myself, to discover my true self"...................................................................................................................

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"You don't love me like the first day anymore" - "Of course, I love you just as much as before, if not more. It's just that I'm stressed because of work".......................................................................................