“Bamberg, Germany’s Noise is a busy man. By my count, he put out three EPs under his Kanonenfieber moniker—two of which I covered here—and a very good full-length with his Non Est Deus project in 2022. Alongside that, he was, it seems, producing, in all senses of the word, another record as his third alter ego, Leiþa.” The many faces of Noise.
“Firtan got a middling review from the gone-but-unforgotten Akerblogger, praising its atmosphere and moments of clarity but cautious of its scattered songwriting and inconsistent passages. To their credit, the German quartet listened, tightening up their songwriting to enhance its more streamlined approach. While it clocks in at quite a bit longer than Okeanos, the third full-length Marter makes the most of it, creating a distinct flow and balancing its power and atmosphere with concise performances and a lethal multipronged attack.” Flirtan with disaster.
“Thanks to that one boozy pirate-themed power metal band whose name rhymes with “Sail Dorm,” it’s difficult to take oceanic themed albums seriously. There are plenty of bands that have torn it up, Ahab showcasing mammoth waves with their breed of crushing funeral doom, Isis displaying the uncaring expanse with shoegaze-y post-metal, and Firtan and Déluge offering some respective symphonic black and post-black to reflect he majesty of the oceans. Scrolling through my black metal collection and each album’s respective themes goes something like this: winter, winter, occult, winter, occult, occult, evil, winter, etc. Oceanic-themed black metal is few and far between, and you’d be hard-pressed to find the good stuff. Will Thermohaline kickstart a new trend or will it end up drowning in its own ambition?” The sea was angry that day, my fiends.
“Categorization eludes Firtan. Okeanos, the second record by this German four-piece, is an album of vast fluctuations. Ever immutable and indefinable black metal rests at its core, but its proceeding layers are a lot more complex. Okeanos is a swirling cauldron of flavorsome sounds: profusely potent and pungent. Inspired by avant-garde intellectuals like Nietzsche and Lovecraft, Okeanos is a ‘dazzling display of epic black metal grandeur, suffused with autumnal atmosphere and winding-yet-captivating compositions.’ Firtan well and truly blow their own trumpet.” Pretentiousness and the void.
