Norway's pioneers of avant-garde and progressive black metal, Borknagar, will release their monumental twelfth studio album, Fall, worldwide on February 23 via longtime record label partners, Century Media Records.
Today, the band release the video for "Nordic Anthem". The video was created by Marius Martinsen, Kenneth Williams and Lars A. Nedland via the production company High & Low.
"So many gods. So many beliefs. So much conflict," the band says about the track. "'Nordic Anthem' is about rejecting any kind of doctrine, religious or political. It's about going to your own nature, your inner core, and finding strength and freedom. Our perspective is a northern one — we're from the north, after all — but this is a firm stance that is universally applicable. It's about finding and trusting your own values, your own heritage, and standing up against gods and authorities trying to push doctrine to control you, or corrupt you. This is our collective anthem. We won't bend our knee to any god!"
Fall includes eight majestic tracks across 54 epic minutes of playing time, once again brilliantly mixed by Jens Bogren/ Fascination Street Studios (Opeth, Amon Amarth, Kreator) and featuring stunning album cover artwork by Eliran Kantor (Testament, My Dying Bride, Sodom).
Borknagar founder and mastermind Øystein G. Brun comments about Fall as follows, "We are extremely proud to present you all with our twelfth album entitled Fall, another chapter of our musical journey. In many ways, Fall represents a continuation of True North, but as always, we are pushing further and afar to seek even broader and more challenging horizons. Musically, we are loyal to our musical legacy, but we have most certainly walked through fire and ice to reach our highest peak yet. Although Fall represents a wide array of musical and lyrical ideas, the fundamental theme behind the album is based on the fascination and appreciation of the very outskirts of life. Those places, and those beings, in the vast periphery of our own existence that very few live to see or even learn to know about- but still are profoundly essential for our existence. With Fall, we seek to portray and cherish all that holds up and pushes boundaries - against the great fall."
Øystein G. Brun added the following words about the track, "From the day you are born, nature will do everything in its power to get you back into the ground. The lonesome struggle of being you or the mighty struggle of all life, will eventually tear you down from the inside - or from the outside. But for the short glimpse of time we endure, we all seek the ultimate heights of our very own existence. Our first single 'Summits,' from the upcoming album Fall, scopes in on this everlasting drama of life - where the drama unfolds - at the very outskirts of life."
Fall is the follow up to 2019's widely acclaimed True North studio album and will be available as limited first-pressing Digipak CD, Gatefold 2-LP on 180gr vinyl, and as Digital Album.
The vinyl edition of Fall will be available in the following variants:
- Gatefold black 2LP
- Ltd. Gatefold neon orange 2LP (300x copies, available from cmdistro.de + various other retailers)
- Ltd. Gatefold transp. bottle green 2LP (300x copies, available from EMP & Nuclear Blast)
Pre-order here.
Fall tracklisting:
"Summits"
"Nordic Anthem"
"Afar"
"Moon"
"Stars Ablaze"
"Unraveling"
"The Wild Lingers"
"Northward"
"Summits" visualizer:
Borknagar are (from left to right in photo at top):
ICS Vortex - Bass, Vocals + Choirs
Lars A. Nedland - Keys, Vocals, + Choirs
Øystein G. Brun - Guitars
Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow - Drums and Percussion
Jostein Thomassen - Guitars
(Photo - Jørn Veberg)
