ICS VORTEX – Storm Seeker

For years he served as one of the members of great Norwegian bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Borknagar, and Arcturus, but after living under the realms of the deadliest kind of Black Metal for so long, he set out to tread a different path. That guy is ICS Vortex, one of the most talented clean voices in Extreme Metal. Through Century Media, a label that is also the host for his current band Borknagar, ICS Vortex has released his debut album Storm Seeker. Unlike his past dealings with Black, Folk (Viking), and Avante-Garde Metal music, his own album, featuring some famous players in the Norwegian scene, was forged to become distant to what has been known from ICS Vortex in the past.

Storm Seeker can be recognized as the picture of a grey reality, yet it has some twists that slightly step out of the shimmering coldness and into a few points of fire and detonation. “The Blackmobile” track, as one of the prime features of this album, exemplifies the exact process of how Black Metal was left aside in favor of Progressive Rock/Metal, Hard Rock, Doom Rock/Metal immersed with modern aspects.

Almost all of the music on Storm Seeker has a strong connection to cold atmospheric scenery. Some of that same scenery was evident on several of the works of Vortex’s old and current bands, yet in general what was channeled through this ongoing storm takes an even stronger turn. With Vortex’s amazing clean vocals that are mainly displayed by his singing in higher notes, along with the top notch twin guitar harmonies, Storm Seeker also turns out to be a relaxing listening experience in a way. This is not a heavy album at all. It might have shared a few aspects that might link it to Metal or the hard side of Rock, but it seems that the main focus of the music was channeled as a sort of a twisted calmness. Therefore, inspiring hits “Storm Seeker”, probably one of the closest things this album had to Led Zeppelin and Yes, along with “Aces” and “Odin’s Tree”, among others, proved that behind the mask of Modern Metal / Rock there is a face that gazes on images of the ’70s era of Rock. You can even call it a drug-induced era, post hippie-like feel.

Even if ICS Vortex’s material doesn’t always extract the same enthusiasm throughout the listening experience, he made sure that each and every track on the list would sound different than the former. Storm Seeker is a place where various worlds converged into a single union under the same voice pattern that leads them into a new light in the cold darkness.

Tracklist

1. The Blackmobile
2. Odin’s Tree
3. Skoal!
4. Dogsmacked
5. Aces
6. Windward
7. When Shuffled Off
8. Oil In Water
9. Storm Seeker
10. Flaskeskipper
11. The Sub Mariner

Lineup

ICS Vortex – Vocals
Asgeir Mickelson – Drums
Terje “Cyrus” Andersen – Guitar
Jens F. Ryland – Guitar
Steinar “Azarak” Gundersen – Bass