Fortid To Release New Album "Narkissos" In October; Releases New Single "Uppskera"

Icelandic metal trio Fortíð unleash the video single "Uppskera" ("Harvest") as a first taste from the forthcoming new full-length "Narkissos." The album is set to be released on October 13th.

The band comment on "Uppskera": "This song opens up with the final verses in Gestaþáttur* from Hávamál," mastermind Einar Thorberg Guðmundsson explains. "The poem translates something like this: 'Cattle die, kindred die / You yourself die / But reputation never dies / Of one who has earned it. / Cattle die, kindred die / You yourself die / But I know one thing that never dies / And that's a dead person's deeds'. The song continues by journeying into the mind of a man with a ruined reputation from his past deeds. And as the title 'Uppskera' ('Harvest') suggests, this man is reaping as he sowed, but he blames all his misfortunes on others. His name will not be honoured after he is gone from this world."

*"Gestaþáttr", the 'Guest's Part' is the first section of the Old Norse Poem "Hávamál" ('Words of the High One'). Its stanzas provide mainly behavioral advise for guests and hosts but also dispense general wisdom. The 'High One' is generally assumed to refer to the god Óðinn ('Odin') and the poem is viewed as offering a glimpse into the moral values of pre-Christian Nordic society.

For anybody following the now more than 20-year long career of Fortíð the writing of not just a great but an all around outstanding album to come has always been clearly visible on the wall. With their seventh full-length entitled "Narkissos", the Icelandic trio has finally done it and delivered a masterpiece that should easily make it into the top part of those end of the year lists.

So what's different? As so often, the actual changes are not that obvious. Fortíð are just doing everything even better than they have already done before. Possibly, their loose approach to any specific genre of metal has finally abandoned all limitations completely. The Icelanders forge melodic riffing from black, death, thrash, and heavy metal threads into one sharp weapon. Any particular sound is not the purpose, but all of them are primarily made to serve the songs. As a result "Narkissos" features nine catchy and fiery metal anthems.

Fortíð determined the musical coordinates of their long journey with the ambitious "Völuspá" album trilogy, which was released from 2003 to 2010. Their early combination of harsh black and death metal riffing with a pinch of thrash and a penchant for epic melodies, versatile vocals as well as a heavy dose of "Icelandic sound" was continuously refined on the acclaimed "Pagan Prophecies" (2012) full-length and the following "9" (2015) album. With the dark and deadly "World Serpent" (2020), Fortíð charted the current course that led via the two-track EP "Dómur um dauðan hvern" (2022) straight to "Narkissos."

Lyrically, Fortíð remain on an Old Norse and pagan course, although the album title refers to the Ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, a Boeotian hunter renowned for his beauty, who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Guðmundsson has woven a yarn in a Nordic context about a character with the so-called narcissistic personality disorder that runs as a red thread through "Narkissos." The album depicts his lifespan from a young and violent person, who plays with people like pieces on a chess board. When his true nature becomes apparent, he becomes angry, paranoid, and full of self-pity until he ends up as an old, lonely man whom everyone has long abandoned.

With "Narkissos," Fortíð present a contemporary metal album that is both musically and lyrically taking the Icelanders to a new peak, and by firmly placing substance over style will find its audience.

Tracklisting:

1. Narkissos
2. Drottnari
3. Vefurinn sem ég spinn
4. Uppskera
5. Þúsund þjáninga smiður
6. Rotinn arfur
7. Illt skal með illu gjalda
8. Tímans ör
9. Við dauðans dyr