Ah, time for another Mork album from mesmeric musician Thomas Eriksen. Their…sixth I believe? I make that sound as though this is just routine but the best thing about Mork, at least for me, is that it is an event. It is always such a dark pleasure to discover where their serpentine progression will take them and how they will continue to balance their twin spirits of being very much a pure Norwegian black metal band and yet unlike so many others. And after 2021’s Katedralen where I noted a subtle urge to explore a little further from their rawer roots I was very much eager to listen and to learn.
‘Dypet’ apparently translates as ‘The Deep’ and in keeping I dive down and let the waters close over me.
‘Indre Demoner’ begins slow and melodic, but cold and the melody, wracked by icy turbulence surges through. The bass is very up front here, pulsing and adding weight to it all. The vocals as ever are just perfect; expressive and never less than dark. The melody has an almost nautical roll to it, but like great rolling waves at night. The atmosphere is bitterly cold, the edge never less than harsh despite the melody within it.
So it seems the stage is set for perhaps a more melodic feel, whilst keeping the true Mork edge of course. Atmosphere wrapped around every chord.
‘Forfort Av Kulden’ seems to back this up with a strong melodic line as it opens, an almost reflective melancholy to the quieter vocals. But the coldness seeps into my bones here; something about the snarled, semi spoken vocals alone in the cold riff. A fantastic guitar break takes you deeper into a bleak, wintery place; internal or external I don’t know but this soundscape has little hints of the style Immortal in their heyday were so good at, but completely different riffs and take on melody. It’s actually…well, beautiful.
And then we get ‘Svik’. Betrayal? Oh my stomach flips, lurches as the emotional weight of this almost Viking metal melody and black metal vocal hits me. A fast lilting bassline, a driving melody but a touch of restraint that, somehow, makes it all the more harsh, all the more bleak. The hooks in this are deep, uncomfortable and the slower pace just adds weight to the atmosphere. Some fleeting, almost missed clean backing vocals just add to the feel.
‘Et Kall Fra Dypet’, a call from the depths, is much harsher, the tempo fast and an eerie malevolence is conjured by the vocals and the sometimes choppy, hard guitar. ‘Hoye Murer’, which features guest Hjelvik former singer from Kvelertak, seems riddled with frustration trapped in an enclosed space before succumbing to a ponderous, threatening passage. ‘Bortgang’ is equally measured in tempo, more reflective. There seems to be an intensely personal feeling to this somehow, a bitterness even. But with an utterly compelling downbeat, almost spiralling melody with beautiful guitar over the top it cuts deep. ‘Avskum’ on the other hand is a mouthful of unconcealed disgust, a hard riff and the vocals full of contempt.
‘Tilbake Til Opprinnelsen’ closes with some curious (analogue?) keyboards in the beginning but a classic, howling bit of black metal rides in. Perfect riffing, drum driven and with pulsing bass. Fantastic, epic closer with that little keyboard surprise and a touch of clean backing vocals once more.
With Dypet, Mork have almost veered into some DSBM areas here where bleak atmosphere and snarled vocals slide alongside Norwegian black metal and swirl together in a blizzard that only Mork can do.
Not their harshest album, not by a way, but it may well be, I suspect, the most intensely personal to Mr Eriksen. It is Mork. It has anger, cold grimness and bitter eyes casting about the land. It has riffs and it has their bleak melodies rising to the fore.
Once more. Top drawer.
Here’s hoping they roast some more coffee to celebrate.
(9/10 Gizmo)
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