ALBUM REVIEW: Det Svarte Juv – Mork

MORK are one of the torchbearers for modern Norwegian black metal, keeping the classic black metal sound alive whilst endeavouring to push it forward. The brain child of Thomas Eriksen, the band have, over the course of a decade and a half and three full length records, done a great job of emulating and commemorating the traditional second wave sound without straying into the realms of outright parody. Their last record, Eremittens dal, took the band to new heights, exposing them to a new audience that were eager to lap up the razor sharp riffs, caustic vocals and tight drumming of a band well versed in the black metal sound. The newest album from MORK, Det Svarte Juv, further cements their legacy as one of the progenitors of modern Norwegian black metal, having a leaner, yet still dirty and abrasive sound.

Mørkeleggelse, with its dark, booming, almost symphonic opener, is a foreboding and bleak piece of music that sets the tone for the rest of the album perfectly. With grating riffs, powerful drumming and shrill vocals, it’s an incredibly raw, yet epic, slab of dense, old-school Norwegian black metal. Moving into a thick, mid-paced riff with a crunching, sludgy bass line, it’s a song that evokes the likes of early DARKTHRONE. Da Himmelen Falt is a much more energetic, melody tinged affair – though its foot is still firmly planted in a classic black metal sound with a production quality so raw that it could give you food poisoning. Lively, dancing lead guitar hooks are the focal point of the sound, coupled with dissonant sections and drumming patterns that are noticeably more intense and driven. Next up, På Tvers Av Tidene builds around a dark, foreboding riff, giving way to tight rhythm sections and starkly fierce vocals. An incredibly robust and powerful song, it makes use of booming, chanted clean vocals to achieve a wholly sonorous and effective sound.

Den Utstøtte is the point where MORK really takes on a ferocity and venom that it has been lacking thus far in Det Svarte Juv. Utilising a far more acidic, snarling vocal delivery coupled with razor sharp, slick guitar flourishes and a throbbing bass line, MORK establishes a monstrous offering. I Flammens Favn is an extremely intense, borderline chaotic piece of music and one of the more aggressive affairs on the record. It’s a full on onslaught of black metal, with little reprieve. Once again, MORK make fantastic use of cleaner vocal arrangements, something which gives this song a deeply atmospheric feel, without detracting from the overall feel of the song. It’s a refreshing change of pace that pays off in a very big way. Again taking cues from early DARKTHRONE, Skarpretterens Øks makes use of hellish, dense vocals that Nocturno Culto would be proud to call his own. Throughout, it channels the traditional, second wave sound perfectly, without ever feeling like a parody.

Moving into a borderline DSBM sound, Den Kalde Blodsvei is a melancholic offering whilst still possessing a lot of the grating tone and jarring fierceness of early black metal. The vocals really excel on here, soaring above everything else, and throwing in far more robust, thicker depths than we’ve heard up to this point. The anchor of this song is a bleak, ethereal motif that gives way to a punishing, bombastic section that really adds some heaviness to the sound and makes many parts of this offering sound aggressive and ferocious, making full use of the bands dirty tone and making it stand out significantly on a record with plenty of stand out tracks. Siste Reis, one of the lengthier songs on Det Svarte Juv, rumbles on with a tight, military drum beat opening this track before quickly descending into a whirlwind of epic guitars and vicious, howling vocals, which sounds far more atmospheric and precise than anything that’s come before it on this record. The music is far more focused and has lots of great guitar parts which help to keep it interesting throughout, with more expert, intricate musicianship, which gives it a far more technical and engrossing sound.

Penultimate song Karantene takes the listener down a much more musically dense and claustrophobic route, with dirge-like, haunting riffs, a thick, sludgy bass line and booming percussion accompaniments really making this song seem all the more oppressive and bleak. Like Den Kalde Blodsvei, it’s more akin to DSBM than a traditional black metal song. The vocals, once again, carve a menacing edge into the mix, and stand out quite a bit when they do come into play. It has a very climactic feel and sets the audience up for the final song incredibly well. Det Svarte Juv, the album’s titular track, follows in much the same vein as Karantene with a far more grating guitar tone, sprawling, atmospheric riffs and a foreboding, aggressive feel that it’s hard not to love. This final song does an excellent job of tying together the more visceral sound that informs much of the bands music with their more subtle, epic qualities, making use of clean vocals and less forceful guitar sounds on occasion to make for a more grandiose and bombastic song. It never fully strips away the caustic, rabid edge that has made many of the songs on this album so good, and still has its feet firmly planted in an old school style and production value, but there are some slight changes in the bands sound that work very well when they are made use of.

Following up a breakthrough record like Eremittens Dal was always going to be a huge task, but thankfully, Det Svarte Juv does a great job of matching, and at some points surpassing, it’s predecessor. The music on offer here is tighter, leaner and manages to let a more epic and powerful sound creep into and inform the old school black metal, without compromising the overall quality and sound of the record. There are one or two songs that feel as though they didn’t really need to be there, but on the whole the album is an exercise in black metal done right, from the way the songs are structured down to the raw and dirty production. MORK is a band that are really hitting their stride, and if they continue to produce music of this calibre in the future, they may reach a point where MORK are discussed in the same breath as some of their idols.

Rating: 8/10

Det Svarte Juv is out now via Peaceville Records. 

Like MORK on Facebook.