MYRKUR — M (review)

Album · 2015 · Atmospheric Black Metal

3/5 · 2017-08-04
MorniumGoatahl

Danish born musician Myrkur (birth name Amalie Bruun) has certainly picked up a dedicated following and more than her fair share of haters since the release of her debut album M a couple of years ago. She's currently building up to the release of a second, Mareridt, so I figured that now would be an ideal time to put my thoughts down about M. Her fans seem to treat her like she's the best thing since sliced bread while her haters will go out of their way to pull the album to bits and the more vehement ones have even seen fit to insult her personally, which to her credit she really takes in her stride.

Personally I find myself in the middle of these two groups. I am not a fan of the album M per se, but I certainly don't hate it either. One thing that is for sure is that it's nowhere near as bad as the woman's haters would have you believe, but I don't see it as a particularly special release either. It's listenable music at the very least.

Myrkur is associated with the black metal genre but to be honest I don't really hear it too much in this release. The vocal work is mostly clean with only a few parts where she actually uses any growls and for me those are a big part of what makes black metal what it is, though it's also not enough to preclude the release from being considered as such. Ulver, a band which is known to have been a big influence of Myrkur's music (Garm co-produced this album as well), had the first song on Bergtatt using only clean singing and that is definitely a black metal song, but my issue here is that I rarely hear musical techniques that sound black metal, beyond the production sound which does fit the bill. Instead there seems to be bits and pieces thrown together that could fit a number of metal styles. Often it seems that the most unifying element in the album is the use of Nordic folk music, which given Myrkur's fondness of clean vocals over growls makes me wonder if creating some kind of folk metal wouldn't be more her forte.

As is, the album gives me the impression that Myrkur isn't really sure where she wants to be musically. If this is an earnest attempt at a black metal release then it's really not great, but the end product does have its charm. Myrkur's clean singing voice especially, is very good. But I do think she needs to decide whether she really wants to be a black metal artist (which would require her to find some more black metal elements from somewhere) or something else (in which case it may be to her benefit to get rid of what black metal elements she does have on M). I'll be checking out Mareridt out of curiosity when it drops, but for me M will always be simply 'OK'.

3.0/5.0

more than 2 years ago
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666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think her two new songs released so far sound pretty black metal, vocals mostly aside which are still mainly clean. The music style is certainly there.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Look at it this way: black metal as a genre pushes its boundaries a lot, which I see this album as doing. That's one of the things I like about it.

Already have her second one pre-ordered and looking forward to it immensely based on the two songs revealed so far.

Nightfly wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm no expert of black metal but I know what you mean, much of it doesn't sound like bm to me either. Her new album will be interesting to hear next month to see if she's distanced herself from it or come closer.

MorniumGoatahl wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I know I'm probably in the minority in my opinion since even Encyclopaedia Metallum lists her as black metal and they are strict on their listings to the point of insanity.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

This still feels like a black metal record to me despite her unconventional approach but I do get where you're coming from.