At first the cover of a release catches the watcher’s eye, and this one is different to all these other Black Metal artworks. It shows the picture of a lonesome region in Norway, the home of singer and leader of MYRKGRAV, namely Lars Jensen. The lyrics are also quite far away from all these stories about death and devils, blood and gore - they are little tales and sagas of Norway, as well as descriptions of everyday life. Some of them got something to do with his family and their work, namely coal burning. Unfortunately the lyrics are all written in Norwegian, but Lars wrote some explaining English words about the content. It is fun to read the Norwegian words and to guess what the terms could mean and it is not impossible to detect the meaning of some sentences. Lars is responsible for the whole song writing, most of the lyrics and all instruments, only some guests appear on Trollskau, Skrømt Og Kølabrenning.
What about the music? It surely is Black Metal with Folk influences and you can feel the heart blood flowing while listening to the variable and passionate sound of MYRKGRAV. The heroic and majestic touch is present all the time, but the one-man-band does not miss out aggressive up tempo parts. The mixture of borne Folk parts and harsh Black Metal vibes reminds me of the first Vintersorg albums, particularly the charisma of Lars’ voice, who manages to use his vocal chords in screeched and heroic clean parts perfectly. In addition to the ones mentioned above, the album features some spoken words passages too and some female voices also can be heard. Well done! Apart from all heroism and Black Metal attacks, some passages for head bangers are included like in Om A Danse Bekhette and therefore I can state that this release offers a lot for different types of listeners. On top of everything, Lars re-arranged a traditional Norwegian song.
Falkenbach or Vintersorg are among your favorite bands? You are not afraid of Black Metal pushing forward quite fast, too? If you could answer both questions with yes, you should pay some attention to this record.
8,5/10