Band:	Mortiis
Album:	Født Til Å Herske
Style:	Dungeon Synth
Release date:	1994
Guest review by:	VPeter

01. Født Til Å Herske (Pt. 1)
02. Født Til Å Herske (Pt. 2)

Mortiis, who left Emperor because of his lack of interest in Black Metal, started his own one man band. Født Til å Herske, Mortiis' debut album only has two songs, but two very long songs and it is an Ambient album who actually still reminds you of Black Metal in some way.

For starters, it's rough production. It's not Black Metal basement kind of production but still kind of rough for an Ambient album. Also it has an ice cold atmosphere to it, it reminds me a lot of Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times in terms of feel. That there are only two songs with a length of around 25 minutes each also means it quite hard to digest, still it has an amazing atmosphere and it's like journey trough cold medieval winter mountains. Chockfull of interesting effects also makes you want to come back and listen to it again and again, such as weird Norwegian narration which I still have to look up for it's translations. Downsides of this album is surely it's slowness, the two later ambient albums with it's same two long song standard - are faster and more varied and have a tad better production. It's also requires the right mood for listing to Født Til å Herske, you won't of course listen to it when you are having lunch at McDonalds with tons of people around you.

Despite this, Født Til å Herske is a worthy journey to frost-bitten medieval lands which I heartily recommend to any fan of atmospheric music who can stand slow and huge songs. Yes, the other ambient albums have a better production, are faster and are more varied. But still don't have the wonderful engrossing cold atmosphere that Født til å Herske has.