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Folkesange (2020) is the third full-length studio album by Danish atmospheric black metal solo act Myrkur (Amalie Bruun). This one is a bit different though: it's a non-metal folk album, embracing else elements from Myrkur's black metal work. Most of the album is not sung in English. This isn't Myrkur's first major non-metal release as the live album Mausoleum (2016) was also folk based.
Myrkur's take on folk music is a blend between Scandinavian folk sounds with some dark folk. Folkesange often reminds me of what the Swedish band Fejd would sound like if they had a female vocalist instead of a male (and before they went metal, obviously). Myrkur has always used folk influences in her black metal sound, so this album doesn't feel like a major step away from what she did before, including vocally, since Myrkur for the most part performed black metal with the unusual take of nearly exclusively using clean singing (to surprisingly good effect).
If you're reading this review as a metal fan who doesn't like non-metallic folk you might not enjoy Folkesange too much. But as a metalhead who's actually very partial to the odd bit of non-metallic folk, I find myself very impressed by the results of Myrkur's Folkesange. If I were to describe it in three words I'd pick gentle, pleasant and beautiful. I especially like that she didn't record it in English bar a couple of tracks. I always think folk music (and I include folk metal in that grouping) sounds more authentic when language is used to directly tie it to the musician's homeland.
I'm not sure if Myrkur intends Folkesange as a one off in between black metal albums or whether this album marks a more permanent shift in direction for the project, but upon conclusion of the release, it actually seems rather irrelevant: Myrkur is adapt at either genre of music so whatever she decided to do next, I'm awaiting it eagerly.