Out of the cornucopia that was the Swedish extreme metal in the 90s, Mörk Gryning emerged with the melodic black metal sound made more popular by bands like Dissection and Sacramentum, but Mörk Gryning had the seeds to the identity separating it from the rest. The essence of No Fashion Records’ repertoire existed only when the band started. That growth led it further and further away from the known sound, culminating into something of its own progressive and technical beast in the form of the 2005 self-titled album. That was considered the band’s swan song for a long time before the band reformed around 3 or so years ago, and announced in this absolute non-year of 2020, they have another offering to present to the world – ‘Hinsides Vrede’.
What fifteen years of inertia has potentially triggered is a recalibration from the kernel of the early style, something that fueled ‘Tusen år har gått…’ in its melodic riffing. ‘Hinsides Vrede’ is structurally simplified in comparison to their last release, with a lot more focus on the melodic aspects. In that way, the keyboards, clean vocals, and other effects serve a different purpose – tying the melodies more tightly with the atmosphere rather than it adding another orthogonal dimension to the base structure. That also means that the production isn’t required to be as dynamic as that on ‘Mörk Gryning’ the album. I definitely miss the adventurousness of the 2005 album here. The album title roughly translates to ‘Wrath from another world’, and the themes revolve around the same.
The album is for me top-heavy, in the sense that the meat of the band’s essence is in the first few tracks of the album. Tracks like “Fältherren”, “Existence in a Dream” and “Infernal” balance the melody and the aggression well. As the acoustic guitars and piano interludes start punctuating the somber-melody-driven second half, the album starts taking a different form. There is a strange sense of finality in these harmonies. With swelling clean male and female vocals, the folksy tinge, some sprinkling of melodeath, and the anthemic ending is not what I had expected. The final track before the outro, “Black Spirit”, has a folk ritual atmosphere as the harmonies from guest vocalist Laura Ute interplay with the main and backing vocals, and the main hook of the track.
Mörk Gryning’s return is not a resumption of where they left off. It’s a return to an early barebone form of the band that enabled the germination of the seed. While the band continues to have a solid grasp of melding the melodies around the hard structures, I miss the dynamism and the curiosity of breaking out of the boundaries as witnessed in their later releases before ‘Hinsides Vrede’. If this is a restart, then the path taken henceforth will be intriguing as a fan.