Band:	Nortt
Album:	Gudsforladt
Style:	Black metal, Funeral doom metal
Release date:	2003
Guest review by:	Slayer666

01. Graven [Intro]
02. Døden
03. Glemt
04. Gravfred
05. Hinsides
06. Hedengangen
07. Død Og Borte
08. Nattetale
09. De Dødes Kor
10. Dystert Sind [Outro]
11. Evig Hvile [bonus]

The debut full-length album of the one and only Nortt (literally one and only, it's a one man band). Nortt.... Even the very band's name send chills down my spine. That's a part of what awaits you in this album. The sense of fear, as well as desperation, the sense of futility of life, of existence.

Gudsforladt - Godforsaken. The music here is very true to the name. You will feel like you are being abandoned by everyone and everything, that you have been left to endure that horrible pain called life alone. Nihilism and misanthropy incarnate.

The music itself here is very difficult to describe. The drumming is very simple and basically it's just striking those drums every once in a while. Vocals are really morbid and haunting, the stuff of nightmares. Guitars are really heavily distorted and have that scratchy sound. What Nortt does with them can hardly be called riffing on some tracks, which feature just striking the guitar strings at different times (similar to drums). On others he uses that distortion to create really dark and beautiful melodies (Nattetale, for example). Piano is ever-prominent, always there in the background playing a really slow and depressing melody. A perfect fit with the guitars. It's really amazing how something that's so simple and non-technical as Nortt's music can create such an atmosphere, invoke such feelings. Even the Intro (Graven) and Outro (Dystret Synd), which are performed solely on the piano have that same atmosphere.
After Graven, I almost feel like crying.

Gudsforladt is by no means music that you can play in the background, while doing something else. In order to achieve it's full potential, you must close your eyes, concentrate solely on it and let it carry you to the darkest corners of your mind.

Nortt is the only band I've heard to create something like this. Highly recommended to all Doom Metal lovers, although this is definitely not classic Doom. In fact, this original approach is what should drive you even more to get this album, and certainly a reason to commend Nortt. The only problem is, how long can he keep making music like this?