Description

Black vinyl with insert

Isengard was the solo-project started in 1989 by Fenriz – one of the key driving forces behind Norwegian legends Darkthrone – because he had many musical ideas to explore that didn’t strictly fit in with the style and music of Darkthrone. Under the Isengard moniker, Fenriz has a trio of releases, Vinterskugge, Hostmorke and most recently the further collection of Fenriz’s early and rare recordings, released in 2020 as Varjevndogn. The original version of Vinterskugge consisted of 3 separate recording sessions conducted between 1989 and 1993 and covering a multitude of styles, including doom, rock, folk, death, black and viking metal. Vinterskugge also demonstrated Fenriz’s breadth of vocal styles, lending an epic edge to many of the tracks. This release contains the second and third chapter from Vinterskugge. Spectres Over Gorgoroth (which also became Isengards first demo, released in 1989) as well as the Horizons recordings made in 1991. Spectres Over Gorgoroth sounds more like the Darkthrone death metal demos than anything resembling actual black metal, let alone folk black metal. The music is incredibly raw death metal, most resembling the Land Of Frost and Thulcandra demos. The actual music is pretty fucking good: pure old-school death metal with an atmosphere too morbid for black metal. The old-school sound is especially helped by the production, which is both raw yet incredibly thick, in the way that many death metal demos seem to sound. The great thing is that the instrumentation is already fully developed and it’s evident that the listener is dealing with a competent band. The guitar riffs are exceptionally good and memorable, if occasionally a little buried because of the production, while the drumming is pretty good but truly hampered by the production sound and sometimes being too loud in the mix, drowning out the excellent riffs. The bass can be heard loudly enough and works well with the rest of the music, while the vocals are Fenriz’s rather strange mix of yells, grunts and growls. While eclectic and sometimes bizarre sounding, his efforts work very well with the rest of the music. All in all, every single element works well together to form an unmistakeable old-school death metal atmosphere that sounds immature but purely authentic. Spectres Over Gorgoroth is an overlooked yet essential view in the early career of Fenriz, and is interesting not only in the context of Isengard’s music but also with Darkthrone, as the music here is very similar to the demos released by Darkthrone around the same time.

Track list:
1. Thy Gruesome Death-Spectres Over Gorgoroth demo 1989
2. Deathcult-Spectres Over Gorgoroth demo 1989
3. Rise From Below-Spectres Over Gorgoroth demo 1989
4. Dark Lord Of Gorgoroth-Spectres Over Gorgoroth demo 1989
5. Trollwandering-outro-Spectres Over Gorgoroth demo 1989
6. The Fog-Horizons demo 1991
7. Storm Of Evil-Horizons demo 1991
8. Bergtrollets Gravferd-Horizons demo 1991
9. Our Lord Will Come-Horizons demo 1991