Originally from New York, New York now relocated to Denmark, Myrkur is a upcoming black metal project formed by
Amalie Bruun who’s the main musician and songwriter behind this establishment. This album caught me miles away as I don’t normally discuss solo artists on Metal Purgatory Media but Mareridt is a highly experimented and well balanced album that immediately caught me by a instant surprise. Amalie’s ability to utilize atmosphere is just fantastic as she foundated black metal while using Gothic and melodic signatures within the lyrics, she has a vocal range that reminds me a lot of Alissa White-Gluz from Swedish melodic death metal outfit Arch Enemy due to the harsh and eerie sound pitches of screams but the latter half of the album is where the highlight truly starts to shine.
The black metal compositions appears to be mixed in authentically as the clean singing balances out progression and a hypnotic quality to her advantage is quite the enjoyable experience. Her voice almost provides silent echoes as Amalie’s limitations and music background has been sorely related to pop and electronic sounds, therefore Myrkur marked a deep change in her career. Myrkur becomes a much more interesting band when it combines Nordic folk and a minor black metal influence, rather than trying to sound more like a typical black metal band. One of the strongest points of that album was the variety, the listener could expect a black metal influenced track, an ambient piece, a shoegaze track or beautiful Nordic folk tunes, all included on the same album.
Amelie sounds more comfortable than ever, reducing the black metal influence and giving more room to some dark pop influences. The album sounds great though a little bit unbalanced due to the lack of a couple heavier tracks but that doesn’t entirely mean the album loses its innovation to Amelie’s creation yet. Mareridt” marks a new step in Myrkur´s career, being a more cohesive work, with a smaller black metal influence and a stronger dark pop vibe. The most interesting aspects of the previous works, like the mix of styles and variety, are still there but with a more mature sound. Myrkur is still capable of creating short by dynamic pieces which are pleasure for our ears. Mareridt may not be for everyone’s musical taste but give it a few listens to be worthy of your own opinion.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
