MYRKUR
“MARERIDT”
Album Review by Mike Hackenschmidt
8.5/10
“Women can’t sing metal” –Me, sometime in the mid 90’s. To be fair, I hadn’t been exposed to Doro Pesch and the genre hadn’t been too welcoming in general to the fairer sex at the time. I don’t recall if it was Liv Kristine of Theater of Tragedy or Vibeke Stene of Tristania that first made me change my mind. Now that I think of it, it may have been Anneke van Giersbergen of the Gathering or it could have been Angela. Regardless, it was a tough time for metal. Elitist mentality limited creativity to the point where the term “Slayer babies” was being thrown around left and right to describe many of the new bands who tried to stay within the lines thus having nothing new to offer. Slayer themselves were generally regarded as having released the same album several times. The genre had become stagnant.
Coming down from the peaks of the 80’s, things looked bleak for metal but it’s in the valley that you find the fruit. The 90’s saw metal expand with variety, much to the chagrin of the elitists. Though there were other changes, female vocalists becoming commonplace was one of those changes that enabled metal to find new life in the aughts (noughties).
Fast forward 15ish years and black metal can be a little boring. Yeah, I said it. Of all the subgenres, black metal has grown to have the least variety. Yes, there are some symphonic and melodic black bands that are interesting, but for the most part the elitists have kept the lines of the black metal genre tight. And here is Myrkur to challenge that. Sure, women have sung black metal before but to my knowledge, never quite like this. Though this is her second album, I missed the first so this is all new to me – and it’s brilliant. Unless you’re a black metal elitist… they hate it!
Starting with the cover, Myrkur trashes convention with a somewhat readable logo, though the uninitiated could still be confused with the Y and the U. Perhaps more unconventional is the fact that the cover photo is not shot in a forest.
Instead, Amalie Bruun went out to the forest to write. Mareridt is based on the nightmares she had after touring for her first album simply entitled M, combined with stories from Norse and Christian mythos. The lyrics are performed in both Danish and English and it’s worth the effort to Google translate what’s being said. At times it’s creepy, awkwardly sexual, and unworldly – yet incredibly human. To get you started the album title, Mareridt translates to nightmare.
Sonically, this album is dark and tragic. Some tracks are soprano falsetto arias over soft music – something one might listen to while sipping brandy, while others are soprano falsetto over black metal with traditional black metal of just standard female vocals as well. Through the album one can hear flashes of symphonic, folk, and gothic metal as well.
If this description sounds odd, that’s because it is. Have a listen.
In a lot of ways, this track reminds me of Seraphic Deviltry by Theatre of Tragedy. The contrast between the beautiful vocals and the black metal mirror this concept, though I’ve not heard it captured more successfully between then and now.
Some compare Myrkur to Ulver. Part of this is driven by the fact that he co-produced her first album. She does have a similar concept to some of his work but at the same time, this is completely new, at least to me. I’d be happy to hear anything else even remotely close to this with female vocals. Feel free to comment.
In Funeral, track 7, Myrkur continues her rather short tradition of working with other famous musicians with Chelsea Wolfe guesting.
Ulvinde shows yet another face of Myrkur in her use of a choir to fill out the sound, cutting into of black metal vocals at times.
As a whole, this album is nearly perfect. I would rate it higher but it evokes an emotion state in which I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time. Besides that, Mareridt is polarizing and simply genius.
(2 quick notes: – check out the extended edition with 5 extra tracks. Also, fuck! I missed Myrkur at Wacken 2016… I didn’t know)
TRACKLIST
Mareridt
Måneblôt
The Serpent
Crown
Elleskudt
De tre piker
Funeral
Ulvinde
Kætteren
Børnehjem
Released: 15th Sept 2017 via Relapse Records.
https://www.facebook.com/myrkurmyrkur/
https://www.myrkurmusic.com/
https://myrkur.bandcamp.com/
http://www.relapse.com/myrkur-mareridt/
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