The Stargate was the first of a four-album contract Mortiis signed with Earache. The music is rich in layered synth compositions that are as dramatic as they are morose. Mortiis is a keyboard ghoul adept at crafting a dungeon-drone. These soundscapes immediately bring to mind the sylvan, fantasy landscape of tall, spindly, dead trees obscuring a hidden, crumbling castle. One can imagine just such a vision in Mortiis’ native Norway. From the “darkest depths of Mordor” Mortiis summons and masters the sighing spirits (present as the voices of disembodied, female plainchanters) of ambient doom. – Tom Schulte