Borknagar — Quintessence

Once again, a Borknagar CD sees many changes from the previous album. One of those changes should come as no surprise to those who have been following the band over the past couple of years. It seems to be impossible for bandleader Oystein to keep together one group of musicians. New in the band are Lars E. Nedland (Solefald) on keyboards, and Asgeir Mickelson (Spiral Architect) on drums. Singer Simen Hestnæs has taken up the bass-guitar as well as fulfilling his vocal duties. Apparently his touring with Dimmu Borgir, where he played the bass as well as helping them perform the songs of "Spiritual Black Dimensions" live, has improved his playing skills somewhat, as his bass-playing here is more than adequate, while I was not too impressed when I saw him with Dimmu Borgir.

One of the other changes is obvious from the moment you lay your eyes on the CD-box. Gone is that 'archaic'-feeling, present on all of the previous three CDs (the last one even being called "The Archaic Course"!), being replaced with a more modern look, as well as having lyrics being less concerned with the forces of Nature than on the older CDs. Still I find the layout to be quite appealing, and it is a nice change from the past, as the previous CD-covers were 'basic' at best. A lot of work has gone into this one, with some nice details hidden for all to discover. Even the band-logo has been re-done -albeit only slightly, improving the flow in it, and its legibility a bit. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the lyrics, though. As far as I'm concerned they have tried too hard to write something interesting, rather than something which is actually making sense.

The most important of all, naturally, is the music. They seem to have gone back to their self-titled debut album a bit, meaning that the songs as a whole are generally more agressive than those found on "The Archaic Course". Simen is using more black screams and less clean vocals when compared to "The Archaic Course". Although I'm a bigger fan of his clean vocals than his black screams, I can't say it distracts from the songs for me. Plus, he more than makes up for it in "The Presence is Ominous", by layering some three vocal lines on top of each other, namely black, normal and a real high-pitched one. There is one song in which the vocals really DO distract from the song, though. In "Ruins of the Future" Simen's black screams are 'complemented' by some weird effect, which almost ruins the song for me. I can't wait to hear them play it live, to see how it sounds without that effect on his vocals, as the rest of the song is very good. Oystein has taken on a bit more of the song-writing again, writing the music for all but two songs, "Colossus" being written by I.C.S. Vortex -or Simen- and "Inner Landscape" being written by Lars, as well as writing most of the lyrics, with the lyrics for two songs being delivered by Asgeir, and Lars having written the lyrics for "Inner Landscape".

The album features two instrumentals, which I can actually stomach. More often than not, I tend to skip instrumentals, as they have a tendecy to get real boring real quick. I actually enjoy the aforementioned "Inner Landscape", and don't mind listening to "Embers" -especially since it is no longer than 80 seconds anyway.

Recorded and mixed at Peter Tägtgren's "Abyss Studio", the album naturally sounds very good, and more powerful than the previous albums. I have some -relatively- minor gripes with the sound though. Apart from the aforementioned effect on Simen's voice, that is. The band opted to produce the album itself, and I'm not completely sure that was such a great idea. The drums do not sound as great as on they do on some other "Abyss"-recordings. The tom-drums in particular sound pretty awkward, and do not fit too well in the mix.I'm still in doubt which Borknagar-album I like best, this one, or "The Olden Domain". For the time being it still is "The Olden Domain", but I won't be surprised if Borknagar put out something which wipes the floor with it, based on what I hear on this CD.