59 minutes, 50 seconds

Mortiis
The Stargate

This was the last album Mortiis did in his "classic" (there's that word again) style, before he shifted gears and turned into a Trent Reznor industrial-rock wannabe. And just what is Mortiis's "classic" style? In a word, overly dramatic synth-generated bombast. Oh, wait, that's actually five words. See, you can't even describe Mortiis's music without going over the top.

I once described Mortiis as a laugh-out-loud parody of all things goth. And, well, he is: the prosthetic ears and nose, the batcave outfit, the makeup...he looks like a vampire zombie after a particularly long day at work. But the first three albums he recorded (two of them for Cold Meat Industry) force you to literally look past his appearance and appreciate the deceptively simple sonic landscapes he creates. With what sounds like just a cheap synth, he conjures up images of Scandinavian landscapes run amok with Vikings raping and pillaging and looting and loitering and littering...you know, all the scofflaw things Vikings enjoy doing.

The Stargate is easily the most rococo album of his career. Much more so than on the previous four discs, he really dials up the Sturm und Drang here: The faux strings swell and ebb wildly, cymbals crash like thunder, and he adds female vocals to give the proceedings an ethereal Ring Cycle atmosphere. (Close your eyes and imagine her wearing a horned helmet.)

I can see why he stopped making this kind of music, and I applaud him for switching gears, even if I can't go with him to his new musical place. I'll content myself with the old stuff and imagine I'm Mortiis hiking through the fjords, adjusting my pointy plastic nose, and trying not to sweat through my fake-leather bodysuit.

Also today:

59:47 Noise Unit, Voyeur
59:47 Photophob, Still Warm
59:47 Second Disease, Flame the Dark True
59:44 Narsilion, Nerbeleth
59:43 Digital Poodle, Work Terminal
59:41 Scrap.edx, The Latitude Zero Project (CD 2 of 2)
59:39 Manufactura, Presence: Into the Here and the Now
New arrival! 78:00 Noise Process, Ground Zero
New arrival! 73:03 Total Pain Kollapz, Hell Is Not Heaven
New arrival! 68:45 Dolls of Pain, Dec[a]dance