CoC : Mork Gryning - Tusen Ar Har Gatt : Review

Mork Gryning - _Tusen Ar Har Gatt_
(No Fashion Records, 1996)
by: Drew Snow (9 out of 10)

After, in most people's opinion, a very forgettable demo in 1994, Mork Gryning (Dark Dawn, in English) were somehow picked up by well-known Swedish label, No Fashion Records. NFR must've known something that no one else did, because Mork Gryning's debut album, _Tusen Ar Har Gatt_ (A Thousand Years Have Passed), is a masterpiece and ranks thus far as one of my favorite albums of 1996. Weighing in at an extremely short 33 minutes, there is hardly a dull moment during the nine tracks which constitute this chunk of Swedish black metal. After the one-minute intro, the first real song swiftly kicks in, and from then on this CD is impossible to stop listening to. Accusations of sounding a little too much like former NFR band Dissection have been voiced by some, and they are not untrue. The song structures are extremely similar to Dissection's, and a couple of the melodies are also much alike. However, this release is much faster and more brutal (but definitely not better) than Dissection. The faster parts are often interrupted with mellow acoustic and keyboard sections. These parts are good, but most of them seem a little forced, and not entirely needed. On the other hand, by far the best part of this album would be the extremely melodic and clean melodies that are interspersed in each song. On the lyrical side, the lyrics are supposed to tell a story, and each song is a continuation of the last in this respect. Although half the lyrics are in Swedish, the English parts are enough to follow the story by, for the most part. Overall this is a fine release, and a worthy addition to any fan of melodic black metal's collection.

(article published 11/10/1996)

ALBUMS
9/11/2005	J Smit	7.5	Mork Gryning - Mork Gryning
12/4/2002	A McKay	6.5	Mork Gryning - Maelstrom Chaos