TAPE 2013 by Zwaertgevegt (limited to 66 copies)

1: As Blizzards Strike the Northern Mountains
2: The Cold Void of My Winter Kingdom
3: Frozen Hearts Astride the Vast Arctic Plane
4: The Ravens Carry My Soul to the Ice Graves
5: Lost Forever in the Snow

line-up:
Mortifer (instruments, vocals) - alias of Fulco Helmig

Review: Three minutes of intro and two-and-a-half minutes of outro is what we get here, alongside three black metal tracks. This time around, just read the review of A Nocturnal Hunt, the difference between the instrumentals and the black metal tracks is not that big, but still noticable. The first metal track is a black doom track, that really misses a good bass-line, and has a bit of a Burzum-feeling (also due to the screamy vocals). The second track is twice as fast, but still barely mid-tempo, and due to poor drumming and absent vocals, really not an interesting addition. It does clock in at over five minutes... The third black metal song is equally slow/mid, and has a bit of an Urfaust feel to it. The vocals are somewhere in a far off distance delivering a message unheard, but at least the music is better than the previous track. I am sure lots of black metal fans will have no problem digesting this, despite the full-on doomy character and accompanying length of the tracks, so I guess Mortifer has done a decent job here. I am not entirely convinced on this one, I admit.

Source: NLBMe exclusive, September 2018.

TAPE 2013 by Zwaertgevegt (limited to 66 copies)

1: A Sacrificial Nocturn & Astral Wanderings

line-up:
Mortifer (instruments, vocals)

Review: This demo comprises of one single track of doomy black metal, that is leaning hard on its drums, very unusual guitar sound (is that even a guitar, I sometimes wonder?) and - surprise - clean ‘ahh’ vocals, which combined, make this release sound very intimate and ritual. Musically speaking, this might not be Mortifer’s best work, but as an atmospheric piece it overrules A Nocturnal Hunt for Celestial Blood and Lost under an Eternal Frozen Sky, which I have reviewed the same afternoon, but previous to this one. After about 12 minutes the intensity escalates and some howling/screaming and uptempo drums start. I am the first to admit that this is by far the least musically interesting of the three, but also by far the most intense of them. Still, 18 minutes is a quite an investment for a song without melody, but so is waiting on a train – perhaps these things can be combined: 20 minute wait, let’s put on Mortifer! It will certainly keep you distracted from the mundane surrounding you...

Source: NLBMe exclusive, September 2018.

TAPE 2013 by Zwaertgevegt (limited to 66 copies)

1: The Beast of War Approaching (intro)
2: A Nocturnal Hunt for Celestial Blood
3: Dread the Return of Qayin-Mortifer
4: ...Thus the Night Wept Sorrow (outro)

line-up:
Mortifer (instruments, vocals)

Review: Three minutes of intro and three minutes of outro are two things I will not deal with here. I’ve heard too many of them and more often than not they are hardly connected to the music that form the bulk of the release, and feel like the artists regarded their inclusion as obligatory. I’ve made that mistake plenty of times myself, forcing out an intro people probably skip anyway. So, Mortifer offers two nice clear sounding instrumentals – the said intro and outro – and the bulk: two black metal tracks that sound totally different, like a well recorded rehearsal, but in great contrast to the instrumentals. That does not mean these songs are bad at all. They’re both pretty satisfactory compositions with a definite mid-1990s old-school feeling. The musicianship is okay and the atmosphere is put centre stage. The one thing that keeps escaping me are the vocals. I was already halfway in that I first really noticed the vocals, which seem vaguely Polish (somehow I link them with Infernum). They are good, a bit raw, old-school, adored with reverb, but feel instrumental to the music only, as another layer of instruments. This can be good, but it also flattens lyrics and messages to ‘that raspy instrument’ that comes along with the music. All-in-all, Mortifer has done a good job on this demo.

Source: NLBMe exclusive, September 2018.