Dark Fortress - Wraith

A specter writhes
Too faint for mortal eyes
A mere ululation

A deathless witness
Lurid in demise
Spawned from pain and tribulation

Unsound
Undead

Evanescing
An orphaned want, marooned
In disembodied mayhem, howling

Just a shadow
Waning with the moon
Ever yearning, ever prowling

Doomed to linger, a wraith in a withered world
You will never sleep again
Lifeless eyes, forever haunted by the void
Gaze upon the tomb of man

Cold and dried up
The ravaged plains lie dead
Buried ruins sing of the end

Faces fade away
Frozen in convulsion
In broken temples, gods quietly die

And gales roam unrestrained
Lick the horror from revulsion
Beneath the weeping scars in the sky

Doomed to linger, a wraith in a withered world
You will never sleep again
Lifeless eyes, forever haunted by the void
Gaze upon the tomb of man

Cold and dried up
The ravaged plains lie dead
Buried ruins sing of the end

Dark Fortress is a black metal band hailing from Germany.  The above song appears on their 6th studio album, "Ylem." Mortal provided the vocals for this song.  This song, and the album as whole, represents a bit of a departure from their earlier efforts, which were more in line with standard black metal fare.  This particular song features clean vocals throughout (ironically considered blasphemy in black metal) and a very melodic structure.

My initial thoughts turn to Ondine's Curse.  This isn't about the medical condition, but the mythology behind it.  In European folklore, Ondine was a water nymph who fell in love with a mortal man.  Upon being spurned by him, she cursed him so that he would need to think about every breath he took for the rest of his life, meaning that if he slept, he would die.  "Doomed to linger, a wraith in a withered world," the refrain, is of course, the catalyst of that thought.

The rest of the world can quickly darken to one who knows their own death is imminent.  They begin to question the point of everything else going on around them.  Sometimes they take life (as a whole) far beyond to what could be a perfectly logical conclusion - that all human life is going to die, whether through intrinsic gradualism or external catastrophe.  Everything in my view of the song revolves around the refrain, especially the line, "you will never sleep again."

It's easy to dismiss these lyrics as standard black metal fare, especially given that a lot of past songs dealt with apocalyptic visions.  This song, however, has enough ambiguity that one could simply divine superficial meaning, as I just noted, or give it a deeper meaning, such as what people are doing to the planet, etc.  Dark Fortress, at least on this album, does not go over-the-top with the whole Satan My Master shtick common with other black metal bands.  "Ylem," lyrically, seems concerned more with the pagan culture of their homeland, and what they see as an extermination of it.  In this way one could see Ondine as the index of their homeland, being spurned by its people, and that one day she will deliver unto them the same curse that befell her mortal lover.

Whatever meaning you ascribe to these lyrics (feel free to do so in the comments), sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the haunting emotions put forth by the song, both lyrically and musically.

The Parting

In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have

Forget what's said
And hear me sing to you
How I've set out to kill my soul
The nightward ways
The labor it brings
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song

Patterns of death overwhelms
Fixation rise
I came along the way
And came to a conclusion
The indifferent sky
Is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission
Come to will

In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have
The parting
End origin
Fade into earth

Times ablaze
Under the flags we chose
Denied my step and froze my heart
Yet I stare
With nothing left to do
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song


Patterns of death overwhelms
Fixation rise
I came along the way
And came to a conclusion
The indifferent sky
Is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission
Come to will

Take your well deserved step
Into darkness
I'll become your eyes
You have no other
We have to walk along this wire
Trust the one that never trusted you

In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have
The parting
End origin
Fade into earth

It's a revival of sorts.  I've wanted to keep this going for a long time, but life seems to step in when inspiration strikes.  As a creative myself, I need to keep writing.  So, back into the music we go.

I got to see Katatonia open for Devin Townsend in 2012.  All I can say is that was a beautiful experience.  This song originally appeared on their 2012 album, "Dead End Kings." The band followed up a year later with "Dethroned and Uncrowned," an all-acoustic rendition of "Dead End Kings." Katatonia opened the show with this song.

It's hard to deconstruct this song as it is densely packed with imagery.  Jonas Renkse has a knack for writing some very melancholy, yet complex, lyrics.  Since contemporaneous art is often a personal reaction, one can only wonder what happened to him in his younger years. The only thing I can do at this point is offer a more visceral reaction.

A lot of the lyrics echo some things that were said to me, both before and after the song was published.  "I saw you becoming the lie" is one that holds a particular power over me.  Although the emotions are ephemeral, the memories are not when they are triggered.  It was taken for granted, however.  And freedom, well, there's a price for that, and most aren't ready to pay.

There are also promises in the song...  becoming the eyes and walking the wire together.  While those don't exactly echo things said to me, they do serve as stand-ins.  Only time will tell if those promises are kept.  Until then, we go on, living our ephemeral existence while sometimes pondering an alternate timeline.

I realize this may be a little much with which to start a revival of this blog, but this came up today in my iTunes shuffle and I just sat back and closed my eyes while it played.  It's a song that has great personal meaning to me.  I prefer the acoustic version, which is linked below.



I'd love to hear your thoughts after listening to the song.  Please feel free to comment below.