Syv means seven according to Google. So as appears to be tradition when bands reach their seventh album Mork’s seventh is called seven. But let’s be honest it is something to celebrate. The other thing about the entity that is Mork is that they play live with such commendable regularity that it is easy to forget that in the studio this is very much the world of Thomas Eriksen alone.
This means that over the years there have been subtle shifts in the music, journeys a little way down side paths but always retaining the black metal soul of Thomas following his internal muse. Sometimes it has been introverted, sometimes more overtly aggressive, sometimes downright angry. But it’s always a rewarding experience, so far.
So Syv.
‘I Takens Virvel’ opens, a slow and creepy rise of music. Keys and haunting guitar. The riff and the roar are sudden and visceral. Beautifully hairs on the arms raising stuff. This is an open throttle, pretty raw and sparse sound. The attack is sharp and the melody gripping but the feel is still somehow haunting, spectral even in the midsection where things briefly become choppy and vocals almost spoken. And then the melody just stabs deep once more. It has me. It reminds me that this is black metal, the sound and the feel not borne on some heavyweight post-sludge riff but the simply feral sound of the world and the night.
Seventh album, opening track just over seven minutes of perfectly paced black metal.
‘Holmgang’ has an even more stripped back sound, coming in on a folk infused sound but the atmosphere is just so… creepy. Things moving through the shadows. And when I say folk, I absolutely do not mean folk-metal. Folk influenced, folk infused, folk…horror (and you would not believe how much I shudder to type those two overused words but I mean them in their proper sense; dark folklore). The clean harmony vocals just add to the eerie atmosphere. A wonderful, haunting earworm…
‘Herksebal’ (Duke’s Ball?) opening is curious, dark and creepy almost early Katatonia like, speeding up a little until we whirl around and around in some macabre waltz led by violin sounds. The bass line adds an unsettling bounce to the dance, the strident vocals add an insistence and our feet are not ours to control as the black metal riff takes over. This is honestly both beautiful and horrible; a superb demonstration of songwriting and arrangement. ‘Utbrent’ in contrast is a violent scorching bitter attack with wave after wave in the riff striking out. A reminder that violence lurks just below the skein of every song.
‘Med Doden Til Folge’ I think translates to something like ‘with death as a result’. It has a smoother sound, an insistent hook to the melody and a strangely disorientating whirl to the sound. Backing vocals bring an almost Viking metal feel, the tempo waxes and wanes but the grip remains firm. ‘Ondt Blod’, evil blood, has dare I say it a seriously old school black metal feel. Scratchy, primitive and snarling on the whole but then moments of control have almost a sly smile of warning that they could just unleash everything…
‘Tidens Tann’ has a pitch black sound but an almost black ‘n’ roll riff weaving in and out and a stormy, turbulent wave feel. Damn but that riff drives into me, through me and makes me tingle with energy. I do a quick translate of the title after first listen and it comes out as ‘tides tooth’ so I think I’m pretty close. Something about it just evokes being in a tide beyond my control…
‘Til Syvend Og Sest’ is an instrumental whose nuances of word escape translate and so I assume is a saying of some kind, a phrase. Once more it has a waltz like rise and fall and whirl to it, that atmosphere that should be gothic but instead is far more macabre. Orchestral without the symphonic. It builds fluidly and with such complete grace that my breath is quite simply…gone. Oh my. A black metal waltz.
The album closes with ‘Omme’. Acoustic, plain singing that sounds wracked with emotion. ‘About’ what I know not but it hurts somehow. It reaches inside with a folk lament and seems layered with regret even though it is presented in so simple a fashion. A strange end perhaps but when placed in the context of what has gone before it seems perfect.
I must confess I’m always concerned with a new album by a band I love. I worry that it won’t gel with me and touch my emotions, that it won’t be as good for me as the previous. I never worry about change though; I anticipate that and wonder where the artist will choose to take me this time. That is the joy of music. Mork with their gentle twists and subtle sidesteps do it with such musical dexterity it is like being led astray in a forest you believed you were familiar with. Syv is that walk when it leads you to some ruins or a derelict cabin, perhaps, and tells you tales of those who lived or passed through.
Spellbinding, melancholy and beautiful, sinister, macabre and ferocious; Syv is further proof that Mork are an expression perfectly at home deep in the roots of black metal but fully aware of the beauty of its branches too. Climb, descend; whichever way you choose Syv is one of the year’s best.
(9/10 Gizmo)
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