ALBUM REVIEW: Múr – Múr

Something about the weather, or the daylight extremes of the seasons, must inspire Iceland as a cultural hotbed for music, especially of the heavier or more experimental – with the likes of SIGUR RÓS, SÓLSTAFIR and SKÁLMÖLD all hailing from those shores. Add to that list newcomers MÚR, the metal five-piece releasing a self-titled debut album laden with existential dread.

Not content to fit within a single genre, Múr contains multitudes, touching on post-metal, death metal, and progressive influences across its seven tracks. The stage is set for epic grandeur with opener Eldhaf, beginning with glacial clean guitar tones to create a haunting atmosphere. Before long, the album’s trademark heavy distorted guitars kick in, possessed of an aggressive bite akin to GOJIRA. It then unfolds over nine minutes into a vast post-metal piece of simple and effective execution.

MÚR quickly dispel any suggestion that they have found their lane by this point over the following two tracks. The eponymous Múr quickly engages in a death metal assault, singer Kári Haraldsson‘s clean tones traded for gnarly growls atop muscular riffs. The intensity ramps throughout the track, reaching its peak during Haraldsson‘s keyboard solo, all surreal pitch bends and terror. The maximal wall of sound created echoes the production of DEVIN TOWNSEND. That momentum is maintained into the second single, Frelsari, a crunching riff played out over the double-kick attack of Árni Jökull Guðbjartsson‘s drumkit. Its chorus is huge, an injection of melody into the sandpaper vocal enough to catch you off guard.

The musicianship on show from MÚR echoes the diversity of its members’ backgrounds. Haraldsson showcases his background in electronic film and TV scores judiciously across several tracks. Lead single Heimsslit opens with spacious synth pads, its textures the sound of an arid landscape. It then gives way to grinding deep bass thumps, the rest of the band progressively layering into a soundscape of doom. Surging pitch swells lift you off your feet into an otherworldly plane. Vitrun instead takes a more direct route – panicked keyboard arpeggiations and syncopated chord stabs cast throughout its runtime.

There’s plenty of virtuosity on offer, too. The chromatic movements of track Múr echo the jazz backgrounds of its guitarists Hilmir Árnason and Jón Ísak Ragnarsson, who get guitar hero moments in the tapping solos on Eldhaf and Frelsari. Time signature switch-ups on the relentless Messa add to its claustrophobic feel. Later, it erupts into a chilling breakdown, the sound of a kingdom falling. Typically armed on-stage with a keytar, Haraldsson shows off some fantastic keyboard solos. His set-piece in the middle section of Vitrun dances over a heavy syncopated riff – add prog-metal to the list of genres on show.

Tying all this together are glints of hope and catharsis amidst the atmospheric and pummeling dread. These are often manifest in vast outros. The cinematic Heimsslit pays off its long build with major key switch-ups and cries of anguish from Haraldsson. His voice throughout is an excellent asset to the band’s sound, equally adept at ferocious growls and soaring cleans. Holskefla takes a different route, its continual escalation of ferocity breaking into a half-time triplet feel to conclude the album.

Múr is a strong statement of intent from a band of great promise. Its restless approach to mixing genres, tempos, and virtuosity is a breath of fresh air – albeit one inhaled from an atmosphere of chaos and dread. There must be something in those long winters.

Rating: 8/10

Múr is set for release on November 22nd via Century Media Records. 

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