Borknagar - Fall

Straight to the cover art list

Ugly cover, probably just like the music.

Hit and miss. Same mold but not as lustrous or even.

Cool. The album has been out for half a day and it already made the top 20 and has 4 10s, 7 9s and a 1 out of 24 votes in total, just because it's Borknagar. The ratings are a joke because it's always the same users that rate on release day and not just one album. How the hell do you make a fair assessment of an album that fast? I know I can't and never could.

Honestly a bit disappointing after the first listen....

Written by Nejde on 23.02.2024 at 14:01

How the hell do you make a fair assessment of an album that fast? I know I can't and never could.

You can always give a rating and change it after several listens if you don't agree with it anymore

Enjoyed the album, Borknagar never disappoints

I'm not too familiar with their later more progressive work, more their earlier traditional black stuff really, similar to Enslaved I supposed. After a few spins I'd say it's pretty solid stuff, there's definitely some interesting moments, the vocals are great, and the synths and instrumentation is decently arranged, but the songwriting doesn't necessarily blow my mind as such.

Written by Roman Doez on 23.02.2024 at 19:23

You can always give a rating and change it after several listens if you don't agree with it anymore

I think it's more to do with those ratings being on the extreme ends of the scale, I would assume there would be more hesitance and re-listenings before making such assessments, that's the way I do it.

It's getting hard to me connect with this album. The instrumentation is good, the quality is there, but the songs are ok and nothing more. I will need more spins, but this is far from the last two. I would not say is a dissapointment, but expected something at the level of True North or at least not so far...

On first listen it strikes me as another quality album from a good band, but I'm hard pressed to pick a memorable moment or a song that resonates strongly enough that I'd pick it over another song from an earlier album.

I've got Amorphis on my mind following the news that they are headed back into the studio this winter. I feel about this Borknagar album musically the way that I felt about The Beginning of Times- good, but not surprising - but TBoT at least had a new mythological narrative to give it a bit of its own identity.

I want to like this more. It's a quality album. It's not Amon Amarth levels of stuck in a rut, but it's not connecting for me like previous albums have, and I don't hear any places that I think will grow with repeat listening.

Feels 7.5ish so far, and the band is too good to drop much below that even on a bad (for them) day.

Hard to judge it its something from mid period and something ''new'' a bit different, same time clean vocals are awesome , and its still Borknagar

I'm at a point where any album where ICS Vortex sings prominently deserves an 8 in my book. He could even release an accapella album and I'm sure I'd love it. His technique is so unique and captivating!

This one feels softer than the previous ones on first listen, and that usually gets minus points from me, but somehow I connected with it much more than with True North. It will take a few more listens to fully ingest, but it is a very calming and pleasant listen. Only critic I would give so far is on the tracklist, Nordic Anthem comes way too early in second position, slowing down an album that hasn't found a rhythm yet..

Written by Liafev on 24.02.2024 at 16:40

This one feels softer than the previous ones on first listen

It's funny you say that, since I felt like it had a bit more in terms of blackened content than True North; both albums are softer than the ones before them, but bar maybe one song, True North seemed to only have shrieks and black metal passages in short snippets on a few songs, while they feel a bit more prevalent here. It's still a melodic album above anything else, and has multiple fully clean tracks, it's more that if I skip to a random moment on the album, I feel like I've got more chance of hearing something with extreme elements here vs. True North.

Written by musclassia on 25.02.2024 at 15:26

It's funny you say that, since I felt like it had a bit more in terms of blackened content than True North; both albums are softer than the ones before them, but bar maybe one song, True North seemed to only have shrieks and black metal passages in short snippets on a few songs, while they feel a bit more prevalent here. It's still a melodic album above anything else, and has multiple fully clean tracks, it's more that if I skip to a random moment on the album, I feel like I've got more chance of hearing something with extreme elements here vs. True North.

Oh interesting, I'll listen to both back to back after the awards are over to re-assess that statement then

After 5 or 6 listens I gotta say this one is nowhere near as good for me compared to their last two

I gave it a few spins because I got hooked by the single Moon which is by far the best song on the album IMO.
Other highlights are Nordic Anthem which was the other single that hooked me, Stars Ablaze, and Unraveling.
Starts well, mid-album is great, the end is meh. I've always lost interest in the last two songs.

I know this band is really well liked, but I could never get into them, really at all. However, there are moments on this album I quite like, in particular "Moon," and to a lesser degree "Nordic Anthem." Definitely the first time I've spun one of their records more than twice

It's a good album but even though I want to enjoy it more I'm getting bored with Borknagar's sound. Some things improved while others became blander.

Everything is played well, ICS Vortex and Nedland deliver great vocal performances, but it feels too by the numbers. I started listening to this band when Vortex rejoined on Urd and it has been slightly diminishing returns since then. I feel like they really need to shake up their writing somehow because their last 4 albums have been way too similar. Even something like opening with Nordic Anthem instead of Summits would have given this album a different feel than the all too familiar journey, or all the songs needed to be as detailed as Moon to stand out. As it is, Fall falls short.

I enjoyed this new album I found it very solid I love that progressive atmosphere with those black sounds that we are already used to hear from Borknagar is not the best they have released but it is an interesting album not to be overlooked.

Borknagar have been very consistent In the quality of their music for many many years now. And this album is no exception, simply beautiful.

Had the pleasure of seeing them live yesterday, and they were a Blast and sounded great!


Top Releases of 2024

First, „Stars Ablate“ and „Northward“ didn’t click for me but after more than a dozen spins the whole album grows a lot. „Summits“ stands above all, „Nordic Anthem“ is a nice epic anthem. Overall Fall is quite the same quality than True North and will probably be in my top 5 this year.

Vortex didn't sound this good in ages, good album

Not as great as True North but overall a good album.

The first two songs were amazing but the album got boring after that.

I find it hilarious that this cover is currently in the 2024 top for album covers

Howcome this album is not nominated for the awards??

Written by FilipeHCCSantos on 12.02.2025 at 20:58

Howcome this album is not nominated for the awards??

No matter if it was in Black, Melodic Black, Progressive, or Extreme Progressive, I feel like there were tons more deserving albums. Same goes for Ihsahn.

My personal Top 3 songs from the album:

Nordic Anthem
Stars Ablaze
Moon