(Below you’ll find a review by our Oslo-based contributor Chile of the new album by the Swedish black metal band Mörk Gryning, which was released earlier this month by Season of Mist.)
The times of horrors are truly upon us. With the approach of everything everywhere gnawing all at once, there is something comforting in the knowledge that we as a civilization are still capable of putting out almost nine thousand metal albums each year. Listening to all of them, well, that’s a different story, maybe it will go down as a New Year’s resolution for the coming turn of the calendar. Until then, you are welcome to all the great writing on this very site.
Among those thousands, we are first and foremost focused on the quality in our selection, a logical statement if there ever was one. Enter Swedish band Mörk Gryning which has been around for some time now, and saying that would be an understatement, at the very least. Three decades deep into their career (although with a decade lost in a hiatus from activities), they have released some bona fide classics in albums like Tusen år har gått… or Maelstrom Chaos cementing their place in the pantheon of Swedish metal and surely black metal in general.
The well-received comeback album Hinsides vrede released in 2020 has put the band back into the spotlight and with it also hopefully brought a new generation of fans. Since fans only want one thing, Mörk Gryning are returning after four years with their new album titled Fasornas tid out now on Season of Mist. The album, more or less, keeps the format of the previous one with twelve tracks in total, although with fewer interludes and a bit longer running time of 44 minutes.
The intro to the album called “Intro” has an unmistakable Swedish melodic quality, opening with an almost Opethian acoustic passage before turning electric and then surging forth into the full blasting assault of “The Seer”, which showcases all of the band’s strengths right from the start. Juxtaposing the speed and extremity of black metal, or better still, metal in general, with the melodic nuances and a touch of keyboards has been somewhat of a trademark for their whole career. Then again, you don’t fix something that ain’t broken.
With songs only occasionally breaking the four-minute barrier makes this experience as focused and direct as one can expect from a metal album. Ripping burners like “Tornet” and the title track, chosen rightly as singles, are prime examples why this album is putting all the fun into functional with no second wasted, rupturing eardrums with tasty riffs abounding. Thing is, we can categorize everything here as extreme metal, but at the same time there is a real purebred classic rock (or metal, whatever) quality to it, the way these songs flow, cajoling us into a state of frenzied bliss.
Just look at a song like “Savage Messiah”, all grim and, well, savage, which then whips out such a magnificent guitar solo that could be, for all intents and purposes, the most rocking metal thing ever. “Black Angel”, also released as a single, rips with purpose and resolution of a band so sure in its craft that there can be no doubt in their unfaltering strength, while elsewhere “Before the Crows Have Their Feast” with its driving bass line just adds more fuel on the pyre of said words and of that which we desire.
The back end of the album turns up the grimness somewhat with a trio of songs that match the ferocity of anything the band has put out so far in their career. “The Serpent’s Kiss” slithers deep under the skin, bursting out again through the orifices of its choosing with another of those guitar solos that lift the whole album to some distant set of dimensions.
Special mention must also go to “Det svarta”, the champion of this dark dawn, a ravaging beast of a song whose harmonizing growling and clean vocals of Draakh Kimera and Goth Gorgon, a feature present throughout the album, reach here their majestic culmination in a chorus line for the ages. And speaking of ages, the closer “Age of Fire” then speeds up even more, again showing band’s propensity for writing songs that make an instant impact on the listener and finishing the album on an almost epic scale.
In the end, the pure power of fantastic songwriting and replayability is what makes this album such a great experience. Repeated listens do reward the listener with finding new details, going through each new run of the album, a melody here, a choral arrangement there, interwoven with pure metal madness.
One could say album’s release at the very end of the year would hurt its chances to end up on many of the year-end lists, but with the show of strength at display, the band is raising their banners high as if saying: Lists? We don’t need no stinkin’ lists.
The new album is out now and is available from Season of Mist digitally and both on CD and vinyl. For orders, check the links below.
MÖRK GRYNING ONLINE:
https://www.facebook.com/morkgryningband
https://www.season-of-mist.com/bands/mork-gryning/
https://morkgryningofficial.bandcamp.com/album/fasornas-tid
https://open.spotify.com/album/1U3cUUd81a0av64cbmY5ga?si=rYDKyKofSiygGHuX5FXwmg