MORTIIS

It is never entirely clear which version of MORTIIS we are going to get. 35 years ago, Håvard Ellefsen was playing bass guitar with Norwegian black metal icons EMPEROR. Towards the end of the '90s, he was making pioneering dungeon synth records like "Crypt of the Wizard" and "The Stargate". A few years after that, metal's favorite rubber-faced polymath was showcasing a profound love of NINE INCH NAILS via industrial rock oddities "The Smell of Rain" and "The Grudge". In more recent times, Ellefsen has seemed to hedge his bets, between the ambient textures of his early days as a solo artist, and the more commercially strident industrial experiments that enabled him to present MORTIIS as a real band, rather than a shadowy solo project. A decade on from his last bona fide studio albums, "The Great Deceiver" and "The Unraveling Mind", the Norwegian is now in the enviable position of being a one-man mystery, with no concrete affiliations to a particular sound or genre. Whether out of sheer defiance or merely because it makes sense in his head, "Ghosts of Europa" is another record that stretches the boundaries of what a MORTIIS record can be. Part industrial rock odyssey, part textural dreamscape, and part wonky, left-field pop record, it will leave listeners with no clearer idea of what the man's ultimate creative goals are at this stage. Perhaps that is the point. MORTIIS bows to no preconceived notions of what an ex-black metal musician should be doing, and "Ghosts of Europa" has little to do with anything else emanating from the underground in 2026.

In fact, MORTIIS has added another feather to his multifarious musical cap this time around. "Ghosts of Europa" is familiar on many levels, from its abrasive electronics and feverish use of synthesizers to the freeform sprawl that occasionally threatens to take these songs into artful soundtrack territory. But when the sum of those parts is laid bare, it swiftly becomes apparent that MORTIIS is indulging a progressive and ingenious streak that has only been intermittently evident over the last three decades. The opening title track is an exhilarating gateway into Ellefsen's newly reconfigured musical world. A dreamy blend of ornate '90s techno, eerie auto-tuned vocals, dark industrial throb, and spaced-out, TANGERINE DREAM-like ambience, it slowly mutates over its seven-minute duration, transforming into a dubbed-out, cracked mirror image of itself. Sonically huge and redolent of producer Trevor Horn's lavish and ambitious '80s productions, it quietly demands to be played through expensive hi-fi equipment. And despite all of that, "Ghosts of Europa" is still a sharp and catchy piece of post-post-modern songwriting with hazy, futuristic atmosphere to burn. "Return To The Old Fields" is even more startling: another lengthy missive, its elegant instrumental drift and evocative, esoteric vocals are smoothly expansive but invigoratingly cold and blank-eyed, like a PINK FLOYD tribute band populated by gothic automatons. When Ellefsen's vocals finally appear at the five-minute mark, they enhance the cool sheen of their backdrop with a splash of angsty humanity.

After those two seven-minute triumphs, the rest of "Ghosts of Europa" continues along similar lines, but with slightly less bravery in evidence. Songs like "The Faith That Fades Away" and "Transcending Morpheus" offer fresh upgrades to the "Smell of Rain"-era, wherein the tones and textures of the industrial realm are fashioned into sumptuous, dramatic and gloomy electro-pop. Elsewhere, "Tundra, Heart Of Hell" and "Tribes Of Dystopia" borrow enthusiastically from '80s synth-pop, to varying degrees of efficacy, and the closing "Farewell Romero" is a restrained, synth-led anti-ballad, shrouded in digital noise and graced with combative crescendos and the frustrated declaration that Ellefsen "can't make the pieces fit" (despite much evidence to the contrary).

Whatever it is that MORTIIS have been peddling over the last 30 years, it reaches a new milestone here. Either indicative of his future plans or anything but, this is another fascinating effort from one of the underground's most enduring eccentrics.