Forteresse

Forteresse are based in Montreal, QC. Founded in 2006, they've been quite prolific: Crépuscule d'OctobreM is their fourth full-length album and the band are quite active in the French Canadian black metal scene. A great deal of black metal draws its strength from creating a vivid or overwhelming atmosphere, often evoking the seasons at their fiercest: winter as ravenous as it is icy, the strings as cutting as a sleet-filled wind. Forteresse, however, as the title, Crépuscule d'Octobre, suggests, are going for something considerably milder. The weather equivalent to this album's sound would be an overcast day. The strings are thin and almost weary, like a high drift of cirri, and the overall mood is gloomy and a bit oppressive, never conjuring more emotions than a vague melancholy. There are the occasional bright spots, like a stirring of leaves, red and gold, spiralling on a gust of wind. The ambient intro, stark and spare as it is, is a high point, every note carefully placed and struck. The rest of the album, however, is moody, simple to a fault, and as moving as a cloudy day.