Following on from the widely praised True North, Norsk unit Borknagar have returned with an album that continues its good work in establishing a version of the band's sound that survives the loss of vocalist Andreas "Vintersorg" Hedlund, after his accident in 2014 left him unable to tour. Much of this was done with that excellent 2019 album, allowing a little more accessibility into the formula without detracting from the black metal past of the band and its members. And Fall builds on this, adding some proggy adventurousness here and there but hardening up the black metal aspects of the band's sound. It makes for a rounded album that never threatens to lean too hard into the lighter style of True North; a refreshingly good and well-written follow-up that builds on its predecessor without rewriting it.

Highlights are frequent but opener Summits is especially impressive, a progressive wander through beautiful terrain that shows off the talents of the band's multiple vocalists and sets up a path for the rest of the album to follow. The meaty pounding doled out by Moon's intro reminds how muscular the Borknagar brand can be, heavy beating drums forming a counterpart to "Lazare" Nedland and Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs's clean vocals and some guitar hero widdling from Øystein G. Brun and Jostein Thomassen, and contrasted well by the ensuing more progressive rock elements, ending with a return to blackened blasting. Of course, the drumming throughout is impressive, Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow more than proving his skills with Moon alone, even returning to the tap-tapping cymbalwork that helped make Up North so fun.

The vocalists are the true stars here, however. Longer songs like Stars Ablaze are virtually built around the contrasting harsh snarls and lighter singing, Lazare and Vortex's unmistakable voices providing plenty of epic peaks throughout in contrast to the latter's harsh snarls. Even in the shorter likes of Unraveling the two singers drive the music on, the ballad-esque The Wild Lingers reminiscent of Green Carnation's gentler approach as it serves as a breather before the closing, nine-plus-minutes Northward. A melodic blackened opening leads to one of the most beautiful sections on the album as the vocalists duet and join voices before the metal overwhelms - just a single of multiple parts that make it a perfect closer and a career highlight as well as an album one.

You could call much of the album as beautiful, even the weakest track present Nordic Anthem. It would be easy to sneer at it when taken in isolation, an earnest Viking-ised atheist anthem that's the most commercial-sounding piece present. Yet it's saved from sheer cringe factor thanks to the genuine passion, yes, and beauty of the vocal melodies. In the context of the album, it more than works. And given that it's the only song on the album which is possible to throw any shade at whatsoever, shows off just how good an album this is. With all love and respect to Vintersorg, who is a vital part of the history of the band, Fall shows that Borknagar can more than survive without him, and make music equally as good as his tenure. We can nitpick - who releases an album called Fall at the start of spring? - yet just as the band thrived after the departure of Garm in 1997 these past two albums show there's a lot of genius still residing in this institution of northern metal.