siLLy puPPy In the sea of never ending black metal releases by more bands than inverted crucifixes in dark recesses of hell, every once in a while i’ll pick something up that’s in the bargain bin solely influenced by the album cover artwork. MYRKVID is one of those bands and i recently picked up their debut release, well full-album release, that is called PLEASURES OF HELL. It can be a little confusing in the underground world of extreme metal as there as three bands of the same name from the country of France including this MYRKVID that is from Franche-Comté. This album follows an EP called “Satanic Inquisition” so it’s not too hard to tell exactly where these guys are coming from. Usually these bargain finds are exactly what you would expect, namely generic crap that has zero potential of ever blossoming into anything more substantial but this is a FRENCH black metal band and France is a country that has unleashed some great talent in the extreme metal world so it’s always worth taking a risk to check out things from this part of the globe. And indeed, MYRKVID is promising indeed. Yes, this is a total worship of everything second wave black metal and could easily be slipped into a Darkthrone discography and the uninitiated would hardly notice the difference.


But differences there are. As with many a French band, there’s more sophistication in the subtleties as well as remarkable musical performances and MYRKVID deliver all the goods by checking off the mandatory black metal elements to make a good old fashioned distorted earache experience filled with the usual blasphemy and hatred. While PLEASURES OF HELL isn’t exactly dripping in the sacred pools of originality, they do put on an excellent display of the usual distorted buzz saw guitar wall of sound accompanied by the buried bass and shrieked angry vocals. The real strength comes in the variations of the themes as they play around more with subtle changes in riffs, tempos and add enough atmospheric touches to give this raw razor blade performance a touch of professionalism. The drumming is the strongest aspect on the album though as Skogsvandrer hammers away not only on blastbeats but on simple beats as well as complex drum rolls.

The band play well together as they weave their sounds in perfect unison to create a true subterrestrial atmospheric presence and offer snippets of predictable band worship such as monk chanting intro a la Deathspell Omega and the by-the-numbers song structures that have a feel of epicness to them but stay within a reasonable time span as to keep the listener engaged. Myrk has a playful guitar approach although his vocals are quite cliche Darkthrone anguish and they use the predictable gimmick of issuing only 666 copies. Doom’s bass often gets muddied down in the mix but offer a support for the furious drum antics but offered a pummeling backdrop that is noticable. Black metal is one of those sub genres of metal where it seems that the subtle variations of how it can be reinterpreted are endless and one that i have more patience for less creativity and seek stellar performances instead. In this case i was quite surprised by the intensity and well paced prowess of MYRKVID, seemingly just another underground black metal band from the abyss that has somehow found their way into my reality. In this case i’m liking the music as much as i dig the artwork. Rare find indeed.