Firtan are a German black metal band and this is their fourth album.
Following on from 2022’s very enjoyable Marter, Ethos brings us 51 minutes of new material from Firtan. On this new album the band aren’t holding back.
Overall Ethos is harsher and more menacing than Marter, but without losing its spacious qualities. Firtan are skilled at creating, building, and sustaining atmosphere, but do so while also maintaining a close relationship with the aggressive black metal that forms the bedrock of the music. This latter aspect of Ethos is lethal and fierce, and its incorporation into a mood-building whole is well-realised.
Ethos is a black metal album that’s focused on mood and feeling, while keeping a frozen second wave heart that has a furious bite. It achieves its goals via atmospheric texture and a keen progressive edge, allowing Firtan to range beyond 90s black metal, but without abandoning it. The well-crafted songs combine aggressive blackened hostility with these two key qualities, resulting in songs that offer a lot of layers. The band take the raw frosted antagonistic nature of the style, and enhance it with elements of haunting beauty, tense malevolence, and melancholic depth.
Firtan’s sound is enriched by a range of different instruments, including dulcimer, piano, synths, and violins, all adding to the multifaceted richness of Ethos. The vocals are relatively diverse, and consist of styles such as sharp serrated screams, darkened roars, and deep growls. All are performed well, and some in particular are delivered with an impassioned venom that’s felt as much as heard. There are also two guest vocal spots, from the singers of Ellende and Harakiri for the Sky, both if which add value.
Ethos is the sound of a band at the top of their game. Firtan sound better than ever, and their new songs are focused, layered, and worth spending the time to properly explore. You won’t want to miss out on this gem.
Wonderbox Metal 