As I remarked on their previous album Thomas Eriksen’s Mork are one of those bands that manage the impossible of being both very old school Norwegian black metal, but also very much of this time and space and forward looking. Their Peaceville debut Eremittens Dal was a fine, skilled weave of atmosphere and riffing, and from the opener here ‘Mokeleggelse’ with the strings fading into the riff we are in a cold and very grim place. The drum battery is monomaniacal, lead vocals superb croak and growl and clean barking vocals like the howling wind through a still forest.
Remarkably ‘Da Himmelen Falt’ is even more unnerving. With a full, driven riff frosted with brushes of Burzum and a cold melody you begin to get the idea that Eriksen may not have been in a good place when writing this. It reeks of being closed in, of shadows of all bad things pressing against you and the soul snarling against it. It’s oppressive stuff. ‘Pa Tvers Av Tidene’ piles it on, a slow stuttering riff and ominous clean vocals rising up behind the growls. About three minutes in a vocal line is held, perfect and clean and it’s like a black hole sucking you in. This is where Mork excel; twisting and draping the traditional framework with a unique atmosphere, a fresh, glaring pair of eyes taking the path that steps just a little sideways but not enough to be anything other than black metal.
Production wise this is spot on, capturing the bulldozing bottom end of their sound without blunting the sharp edges of the riffs in songs like ‘Den Utstote’ and the ferocious yet darkly melodic ‘I Flammens Favn’, where bits of almost traditional heavy metal swirl, rise and fall back into the black metal maelstrom. Again we get beautifully judged use of clean vocals here, contrast to the storm, thickening the dread.
As a reviewer I always find myself overthinking things but there seems to be such a tangible feeling of the negative here; despair, dread, and still an unquenchable rage burning bridges behind so despite it all the only way is forward. It does feel like a relentless, belligerent determination passing through these bleak atmospheric musical tracts of land. Lend a listen to ‘Siste Reis’; a fantastic basic riff brimming with life from the vocal performance to the shimmering percussion but possessed of a musical glare that almost literally scream “out of my fucking way…” Brilliant, brilliant song.
Ah, who knows? Only Mr Eriksen. All I can really say is this is uncomfortable stuff: Bleak, at times bewildering in the black glittering shine the arrangements and shifting passages produce, whilst still remaining utterly black metal.
Absolutely top drawer stuff.
(8.5/10 Gizmo)
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