Swedish black metallers Mork Gryning return for the very last time with their self titled
swansong. Creative mastermind Goth Gorgon had already pulled the plug after their 'experimental' Pieces Of Primal Expressionism album but due to 'fan pressure' reformed the band once for a final effort. An effort that was well worth the wait.
Having heard their last album, I didn't really find it very experimental at all, but that's mostly because of my love for bands like Solefald, Arcturus and Dodheimsgard. I'm used to a lot of weirdness.
For this final album, Mork Gryning takes the best elements of both worlds and intertwine them nicely in a big musical melting pot. Great melodic black metal riffs collide with death metal parts, trashy verses and some more doomy or even prog like parts. Add some stellar drumwork which ties everything into a flowing cohesive sound, and we have some great stuff here. I kind of lost interest in black metal lately mostly because of a lack of musical progression but this album really grabs my attention en keeps it from start to finish.
It's hard to really explain what is so good about this album, the best thing to say would be 'the sum of it's parts' I guess. But there is more to it of course. The songs are full
of special moments, like the clean vocals in Pure, the intro riff of All Discarded and the icing on the cake: a cover of At The Gates' golden oldie Neverwhere. A song that perfectly fits into Mork Gryning's musical spectrum and serves as a fitting closing track, ending the album on a high note and at the same time ending an era.
My only gripe with this album comes after 10 minutes of silence, a weird industrial/electronic track which doesn't really add up and easily could not
have been on the album.
Apart from that, Mork Gryning end their career on a high note with a fresh sounding black metal album with well written songs, a slamming production and some great atmospheric parts.
Give these guys the recognition they obviously deserve and give this a spin,
you'll like it for sure.
87/1001Details Black Lodge
Released on Thursday Nov 17th, 2005
Blsck Metal
Writer @Ce-El-Wan on Wednesday Feb 15th, 2006
Tags: #Mork Gryning
2. Ingen Darkyan
3. The Sun
4. Into Oblivion
5. The Aurora
6. Pure
7. All Discarded
8. Disguise My Parting
9. Neverwhere