MÖRK GRYNING Fasornas Tid CD Review

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken the plunge and listened to a Black Metal album from a band that I wasn’t already aware of. Black Metal isn’t a genre that I cling to much at all these days, I guess you could say I outgrew it. Much like Death Metal, Black Metal is a very niche genre and often it takes some digging to find bands/albums that are releasing quality music in the genre.

Enter MÖRK GRYNING, a Swedish Black Metal band that’s been around for quite a while, but I hadn’t heard them until a few weeks ago. The band has just released their 7^th album, “Fasnornas Tid”. Since the band aren’t newcomers to the scene, I did some research and checked out a few of their other albums, notably their debut “Tusen år har gått”. I wanted to see how the band measured up to their previous glories.

While researching I noticed there are several in the scene that feel the band’s debut is a classic and while I can certainly hear that, it pales in comparison to this new offering. Sure, the music is there, but the production value of “Fasnornas Tid” is insane! The musicianship and the growth of the band is also prominent, their choices in the approach to their music and songwriting is quite different, it’s much more mature than you’ll find on their earlier albums. The songs are well crafted/cohesive and a bit more thought out as opposed to bludgeoning the listener for no reason.

I find myself wanting to listen to this album over and over, it just feels and sounds good. Obviously, it’s HEAVY as hell, but the beauty is truly in the production and the song writing. The album is packed with phenomenal guitar work – hooky riffs, melodies and lead passages that will please every guitar fan on the planet. The same can be said of the rhythm section, sure there’s a great deal of blast-beats, but the crescendos and the rise and fall in each song really caters to the melody in the songs. Vocally, it’s typical of Black Metal, but there are a lot of moments where clean vocals are woven in a choir like manner. I can’t really compare them to anyone specific in the scene too much aside from God Dethroned, but that’s due to me being a fan and looking for comparisons.

The standout tracks here are of plenty, but for my money “Black Angel”, “Serpents Kiss”, “Before the Crows Have Their Feast” and “Savage Messiah” are the best of the bunch! Although I’m not an avid fan of the band, I can say without a doubt that this is the band’s best record that I’ve heard and I listened to them all, it’s well rounded and the band seem comfortable in their skin and ready to take on the world! If you dig bands like Dissection, early God Dethroned, Marduk and Emperor, I strongly recommend checking this album out, it’s a sleeper specifically in the land of Black Metal. 

~Black Angel