Mork Gryning - Pieces Of Primal Expressionism
2003 - No Fashion Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the No Fashion website.
Mork Gryning's latest release sees them moving away from traditional, speedy black metal and incorporating more external influences to create a sound somewhat reminiscent in spirit to Borknagar's last couple of efforts, or even to some extent Rotting Christ or Tidfall. Futuristic samples and beats occasionally sweep past the riffage, while extra instrumentation like the violins on 'An Old Man's Lament' or trombone elsewhere on the album all point at the fact that Mork Gryning are leaving their corpsepaint days far behind them.
Black metal purists will not be able to stand this, and to be fair, most metalheads will find the experimentalism inherent in this release a little too much to stomach as well - especially seeing as the band seem to be operating somewhat outside of their abilities - for instance, the clumsy nature of the changes between mellow, melodious balladry and blastbeating intensity on the aforementioned '...Lament', or the fact that the vocals are growly and harsh throughout and therefore not as diverse as the nature of the music would seem to demand.
If Mork Gryning can find a comfortable middle ground between their abilities as songwriters and their ambitions, then their next release will probably be on a par with Borknagar - unfortunately, right now this is a mixed-up stew of unformed ideas, black metal extremism with unrealised avant-garde tendencies.
5/10
2003 - No Fashion Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the No Fashion website.
Mork Gryning's latest release sees them moving away from traditional, speedy black metal and incorporating more external influences to create a sound somewhat reminiscent in spirit to Borknagar's last couple of efforts, or even to some extent Rotting Christ or Tidfall. Futuristic samples and beats occasionally sweep past the riffage, while extra instrumentation like the violins on 'An Old Man's Lament' or trombone elsewhere on the album all point at the fact that Mork Gryning are leaving their corpsepaint days far behind them.
Black metal purists will not be able to stand this, and to be fair, most metalheads will find the experimentalism inherent in this release a little too much to stomach as well - especially seeing as the band seem to be operating somewhat outside of their abilities - for instance, the clumsy nature of the changes between mellow, melodious balladry and blastbeating intensity on the aforementioned '...Lament', or the fact that the vocals are growly and harsh throughout and therefore not as diverse as the nature of the music would seem to demand.
If Mork Gryning can find a comfortable middle ground between their abilities as songwriters and their ambitions, then their next release will probably be on a par with Borknagar - unfortunately, right now this is a mixed-up stew of unformed ideas, black metal extremism with unrealised avant-garde tendencies.
5/10
