Myrkur – “Mareridt” (2017)

MYRKUR
“Mareridt”
Atmospheric / Black Metal
(Relapse, 2017)

This is highly nuanced album rich in diverse instruments and teeming with melancholy. Myrkur’s “Mareridt”  is by no means an easy listen, but an incredible musical journey through the lush Scandinavian landscapes painted not with colors, but notes. 

When I first heard of Myrkur, however, I did not know about any of this. All I knew is that I was listening to a female fronted black metal band, a concept not that groundbreaking for those who dwelled in these waters for long enough (Astarte, Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult or Bestial Holocaust anyone?). Therefore, let’s remove gender from the equation right at the start.

But I’m getting sidetracked. When I first heard of Myrkur I did not know who Amalie Bruun was. I had no idea she used to have a pop or singer-songwriter phase going on, didn’t know she was on the infamous cover of Terrorizer. Hell, I didn’t even know she starred in The Lonely Island’s “Jack Sparrow” video with the one and only Michael Bolton, and I must have seen that thing more than a hundred times.

All I knew was what I’ve heard. Atmospheric, dark music with contrasting screaming and clean vocals, rich in layers and masterfully played. Sort of like a metalized version Enya. The contrasting singing styles reminded me of those fairy tales where a charming young girl with a bewitching voice would turn into a hag during the night. That depiction right there is why I fell in love with metal music in the first place. I was able to create my own world from what I’ve heard without even knowing the lyrics. You can’t do that with modern pop.

Now that we’ve established the reasons why I absolutely loved her debut “M” let’s delve into her latest offering “Mareridt”. This is highly nuanced album rich in diverse instruments and teeming with melancholy. It is by no means an easy listen, but an incredible musical journey through the lush Scandinavian landscapes painted not with colors, but notes. The album strikes a perfect chord between old-school and modern black metal, enriched with doom metal elements and authentic Scandinavian folk melodies for good measure. Just listen to tracks like “The Serpent”, “Elleskudt” (my absolute favorite) or “Ulvinde” and try to stay unbiased. The album also features a contribution from Chelsea Wolfe who nearly steals the spotlight on the gloomy track “Funeral”. Amalie flaunts her soothing, seductive voice mercilessly and the clean vocal lines are definitely where she excels. Just pay close attention to “Gladiatrix”, a malicious, perverted Nightwish twin, and you’ll know what I mean.

But it’s not all northern lights and butterflies. There’s one thing that really bothers me about the album. The aggressive elements, including the blast, beat drumming, aggressive guitar parts and even the growls are buried in the mix in a couple of tracks, whereas the clean vocals and the traditional instruments come off as too loud in comparison. This is most obvious in the second track of the album, “Måneblôt” and perhaps not as apparent but still looming in the rest of the album as the growls are often silent yet heavily distorted. Ironic, since it’s also the most brutal and as straightforward black metal track as “Mareridt” gets. It almost sounds like someone taped Scandinavian folk music over an old-school black metal album you can still hear faint hints of in the background (if you’re old enough to remember how cassettes work). Whether this was done to hide these elements from an unaccustomed audience or to focus on the more atmospheric ones, the production sounds incoherent and imbalanced as a result.

Saying that Myrkur is something new and groundbreaking in the scene would definitely be a huge overstatement. Categorizing her music as black or white is definitely an impossible task. But judging the album based on any criteria other than the music is also highly unfair. “Mareridt” incorporates all the best elements of several genres into a diverse treat as Amalie obviously does not care what label you’ll put on it. She creates the music she enjoys, disregarding any rules along the way. At the end of the day, that’s precisely what rock ‘n’ roll is all about. And while the publicity Myrkur is getting along with enjoying the love of hipster audiences sure doesn’t hurt the band’s popularity and sparks hatred, even without all the press and the fame the album still holds as one of the strongest and most diverse and interesting metal releases in 2017.

Written by Jovan Ristić