Arson Cafe: Mork - Dypet Review

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Mork - Dypet Review

Two years ago, it was with Katedralen that I got a bit more convinced that Mork can actually meet its reputation. It has been a band with professionalism that shines through the building, all the right imagery properly placed almost like cancelling the genre’s original spontaneity, which is the reason for their success but also the source of my slight hesitation especially with a set of moderate releases between 2013 and 2019. However, Katedralen’s gripping material indicated that the band looked slightly further than just being another Norwegian black metal band and explored, in their way, fresh directions.

While this should not mislead the reader that Mork actually experiments towards something completely new, yet they have started to incorporate small sounds, little elements as well as a more personal compositional structure for that record, as well as the newest work Dypet. It is by no means the fiercest or coldest black metal album out of their territories, instead it mostly employs expressive, poignant melodies, it takes its time by setting basic layers and building upon them with beautiful guitar riffs, bass lines and distinctive shrieked vocals.

The artwork, as the music, is still colourless, but Mork have grown to be a rather easy to listen black metal band. The tracks in Dypet are fairly accessible but at the same time not boring, and with such a smoothened production, this record can stand as an example of what black metal is, in a discussion with an audience that is not actually seasoned in the genre, and an entry level release before diving into bands of a more violent nature.

Highlights include the moving riffs of “Bortgang”, the accompanying clean vocals in “Svik” and “Hoye Murer” that features Hjelvik of Kvelertak. Exquisite details form the introductions of “Forfort av kulden” and the closing track “Tillbake til opprinelsen”, but Mork are smart enough to use just a few seconds for them before going on. Their heavier side can be found in the more ominous piece “Avskum” but that’s about it, I would generally like the band to have an overall more assertive presence with Dypet, as all instruments feel like holding back a bit, especially the drumming. Nevertheless, it is clear that it is what Mork intended and they have several assets to show that make the record worth listening to and owning, especially looking at this cover.

Out on March 24th, 2023 | Peaceville Records

DAMAGE: 3.5/5 [Great]

1 comment:

InManusTuasMarch 27, 2023 at 9:18 AM
I enjoyed Katedralen more, but this one is also good.
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Reckoning

From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything.