Mörk gryning

Mörk Gryning are now buried, as is their (please bear with me here) melodic technical blackened death metal they practiced so intensely with this; their farewell album. I’ve mentioned in another review that I don’t generally like farewell albums, as they’re often harshly put together and rushed out on the market. Well, I’ve surely been too irrational with that argument, as I’ve been proven wrong both times. “Mörk Gryning” is a hell of a ride, which absolutely should be experienced.

For this final album, the band expanded to a full outfit. By no longer being the two man band it always had been, the full line-up could write songs together that Mörk Gryning never was capable of before. Only one of the key-members remained for this album, and Goth works well with the other individuals in the group. The guitarists have come up with some great riffs, and in the end, isn’t that what it’s all about? Crushing, pumping riffs! The real surprise though, is that even the slow and melodic parts work well. This is an issue that this band always has had problems with. Some stellar melodies are baked into the otherwise crunching music, and with great result. The drumming has never been performed better by this band either. The new drummer brings diversity into a whole new level for them. Take for instance the second opening to “The Aurora”, which with its bombastic rapid hits makes even the fastest, most technical drummer look like a paralyzed fish. There are plenty of opportunities for tempo changes and different patterning, and it seems the band has taken full use of them all.

The vocals are now handled by a new character as well, and I must say that even though this type of shrieking / growling always sounds pretty much the same in my ears, it’s kind of sub par. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing typically off beam about it, but it doesn’t stand out in any way. In my opinion, there should’ve been clean vocals on this whole record. It could have brought this album up several notches towards stardom. Especially “Ingen dyrkan”, albeit being one of the strongest songs here, could have benefited from this.

So there you have it, folks. Mörk Gryning is now history, and surely going to be missed in my book, but never in my play list. There’s just always room for them in there. This album contains way too many great songs to be thrown into the “mediocrity-box”, but not enough to surpass most other releases of its kind. The first half of the album also sounds better than the second half, so the interest drops a little towards the end. Still, a good effort from this now buried band. Thank you for everything, Mörk Gryning.

Best tracks : “Ingen Dyrkan”, “The Sun”, “Into Oblivion”, “The Aurora”