Newly formed Ancient North is a one-man, black metal venture from Oregon, USA.  Behind the project is Forlorn, who has another solo BM project Necroseer. The Gates was originally released in April of 2022 in digital format, and now it found its way into a physical realm via Iron Bonehead. 

The Gates is nothing less than a homage to the old and classic BM; Darkthrone would be proud of Ancient North, Gorgoroth or early Ancient can be a reference too, and even the cover is similar to  Gorgoroth’s Antichrist. Everything here screams of devotion to the pillars upon which black metal arose and flourish. An album that seems to have come from years back, but without the pestilence of hype. 

Forlorn has true dedication and he is able to produce old-school material. Everything that a black metaller could wish for this album is fulfilled. Aspects like the monolithic riffs, the constant blast beats and the high-pitched vocals are here. The atmosphere is dark and cavernous, the apparent feeling of stagnation is obscuring everything in a very positive way and the music itself, which is setting its feet on the classic paths, without giving a shit about any sort of progression.

Obviously, the production of “The Gates” is low-fi and similar to the likes of Darkthrone’s Transylvanian Hunger. The album sounds bleak and flat but on purpose. The dynamics are rare and there is also a  distinct lack of bass, the drums sound somewhat thin as they should. There’s no punch at all in the rhythm section or generally but all of these are expected, given the dedication this album is giving to. An issue may be the (possible) imbalance of how loud the vocals are in comparison with the rest. Some slight fine-tuning in normalizing the loudness of each channel may have given an extra touch, but this is just a minor quibble. 

Forlorn most certainly has the ability to create solid true old-school black metal, and The Gates are very much now open!