MYRKUR – M

‘M’ has been hailed in the press as the future of Black Metal. A pretty annoying and aggrandising statement, I’m sure you will agree. Correct me if I’m wrong but BM has been doing fairly well up to now, and if this is going to be the future I will be getting my kicks elsewhere.

So – lots of neofolk with haunting, beautiful clean vocals and piano from the woman herself. Haunting, beautiful and boring… Then raging bursts of staticky full speed BM assault. Kind of reminds me of early Ulver (but don’t forget Garm mixed this so no surprise there).

I like neofolk and I like raging, flat out black metal. I just don’t like the mix here. The slow bits are snooze inducing rather than ethereal. They don’t really go anywhere. Kind of like Enya on a threadmill… Then, the harder bits lack potency. They sound like a ghoul-filled wind howling outside. Sure it will kill you if you go out there, but I’m safe here playing boardgames by the fire.

I admit that I’m not a patient listener, but after 6 spins that I did not enjoy my verdict on this one is ‘delete’.

http://www.relapse.com/label/

http://www.myrkurmusic.com/