AN NCS PREMIERE: MYLINGAR — “FRIHETEN”

You might think that when we agree to premiere new music by a mysterious new band, we would have at least some inside information about the musicians, their origin story, precisely where they are from, etc. But in the case of Mylingar, we remain in the dark — which is where their music dwells as well. We do know they are from somewhere in Sweden, and we have heard their debut EP Döda Vägar, which will be released in late November or early December by Amor Fati Productions. An excerpt of one song from the EP (“Såren”) was made public last month, and today we bring you a second track called “Friheten“.

Apart from the music itself, which sends bolts of lightning into your head, perhaps some further insight into the band can be discovered through the name they have chosen for themselves. As explained by Wikipedia, “mylingar” is a Swedish word that invokes a legend “about ghosts/spirits of unbaptized and/or unnamed children that have been forced to roam the earth until they could force someone to name and/or bury them, in fact ‘killing’ them for real so they can finally rest”:

“In a way, they haunt people in order to get killed/buried. They haunt lone wanderers in the woods, jump on people’s backs and demand to be carried to a graveyard. They are very aggressive and become heavier as you come closer to the graveyard, so that you might sink into the ground carrying them there. If you don’t do as they ask you, they might kill you in a rage.”

Aggressive, heavy, haunting, and seething with rage… those descriptions do suit the music. “Friheten“, for example, explodes in a black ice storm of ravaging riff distortion, full-throttle drums, and ugly, strangled, hair-raising vocals. It’s chaotic and violent, but the unnerving gale of sound eventually segues into a passage that will get your head moving as fast as the music is moving — an equally electrifying dose of rapidly scraping riffs and nail-gunning jabs, animated by bursts of dissonant notes and the metronomic crack of the snare.

In the final minute and a half, you may be reminded of the legend of those undead spirits becoming heavier as they ride you to the graveyard. The sonic frenzy diminishes, replaced by a grim pounding march as the vocals become even more harrowing, becoming flesh-peeling screams of rage — or agony.

Döda Vägar definitely belongs on your radar screens, and we’ll have more to say about it in advance of its November 21 release by Amor Fati.

The chilling artwork was created by Beyond Art (Brian Nguyen), who has also worked with Sortilegia, Nawaharjan, and others; the logo was created by Christophe Szpajdel. To order a digital version of the album on Bandcamp (name your own price), go here:

https://mylingar.bandcamp.com/album/d-da-v-gar

Amor Fati will release the EP on CD and vinyl, though the digital release will remain “pay what you want”. For further info about the physical  releases, watch these spaces — and to hear the previously released excerpt of the song “Såren“, just let the player below continue to run after you’ve been ravaged by “Friheten“.

http://www.amor-fati-productions.de
https://www.facebook.com/amorfatiprod
https://www.facebook.com/mylingar