Each journey has its shadow part, and it’s Mork’s turn to reveal its own.
Created in Norway in 2004 by Thomas Eriksen (all instruments/vocals, The Deathrip), Mork is a one man band that today offers us Katedralen, its fifth album. The band’s discography is also made of three EPs as well as two splits, and the creator is joined on stage by Rob (basse), Alex Brun (guitare) and Daniel Minge (batterie, Dauden, ex-Ragnarok) or Asgeir Mickelson (batterie, Spiral Architect, Veil of Secrets, ex-Abyssic, ex-Borknagar, ex-Ihsahn).
The sound of Mork was forged into the blackest Black Metal roots, and it’s impossible not to feel it in this new album’s sharp riffs. In addition to this significant impurity, Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone, Sarke), Dolk (Kampfar) and ?Eero Pöyry? (Skepticism) came to support the band’s creator on some tracks.
Composed of nine tracks of pure darkness, the album’s influences are numerous, and we can understand it at every moment of this raw sound. Dodsmarsjen, the first song, is a composition that plays on aggressiveness at each second after a majestuous introduction. Ice-cold harmonics let place to norwegian vocals, sometimes supported by some oppressive backing vocals, while the rhythmic slows down for Svartmalt. The song is very catchy, using piercing and heady leads to develop those putrid riffs, contrasting with pure blackness. Some mesmerizing clean vocals appear on Arv, a song of which softness meeta a solid and sharp rhythm part, making this one in my opinion, one of the most intense of the album. Evig Intens Smerte is next, and the band stays in pure aggressiveness thanks to hoarse riffs, two voices offering ravageous howlings and event when the song slows down, we still feel this underlying ferocity.
To the band’s morbid Black Metal some groovy and catchy tones are added for Det Siste Gode I Meg, a dissonant song on which we can only immediately join. The two voices melt in a storm of fury, revealing an unholy strength before Født Til Å Herske, a crushing song that increases intensity before progressively unleashing it. A terrifying howling, then a heavy rhythmic joined by blast, sharp lead… Lysbæreren and its heady tones add some kind of mystical dimension to the band’s music, to which they add a guttural voice that perfectly fit the song’s ambient blackness before the last song. De Fortapte Sjelers Katedral, is the longest song of the whole Mork discography, but also the most ambitious. The sharp rhythmic wears an ice-cold majestic but also weighing ambience, allowing the musician to spread all his creativity and strength. Sometimes dissonant, sometimes mad, but still dark, the rhythmic conveys us until the borders of death itself, then the impressive final keyboard part signs the end of the requiem.
Whether Mork was known for its quality and its Old School influences so far, be ready to be surprised. Katedralen isn’t just an additional block to the musician’s morbid building, it is an ice-cold Black Metal landmark itself, and a masterpiece for whosoever enjoys the Norwegian scene.
95/100