Murdryck - Födelsen

Murdryck

Födelsen

by Jorge Zamudio at 30 April 2019, 4:36 PM

Well it has been a while since I have written something about the music I love, so here I go.

Murdryck seemed like a band that I thought would sound just like any other Black Metal project. I thought this would be standard, but guess what? This album has some great features. While its something that may not be as original as I would have liked, it's good as hell, simply because they are one of those bands that doesn’t enter in full speed to demonstrate how good they are. Instead, they chose to slow things a little in order to create an atmosphere that is very rampant. I know it sounds weird, but let’s take a look at this album called “Födelsen”.

Their Intro is pretty normal as far as Black Metal goes. I'm not saying that it´s something bad, but it is something that you would expect in any Black Metal band using an intro. It sounds like the  the loading screen of a war video game, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

“Vålnad” is something you wouldn't find in the standard Black Metal scene. Its simple and slow, yet aggressive at the same time. This is a song that could easily be forgotten, but trust me, listen to it 3 or 4 times in order to find that  the rawness in the production is an intentional quality that also uses  acoustic moments, to transcend into darkness, without losing the aggression. “Sea Spirit of the Night” is the single of this album, and you can understand why. It’s probably the most accessible song on the entire album, with constant riffs, slow drums, good basslines, acoustic atmospheres, and those shrieking vocals. This track encapsulates the entire album, not making the other songs insignificant, but giving us the entire theme in one single moment.

“Blood Sacrifice” is the most melodic track, and is quite catchy from the beginning. There are no abrupt changes and a really good guitar solo. This song would  be a pretty good starting point in listening to this band.  As a whole, it’s so unpretentious that it would go well in any genre of metal and gives you the curiosity to seek out additional songs from the band.

For the remainder of the album, you'll find a very similar feel. This is indicative of the band's hard work and consistency, and of course of their reliance on the theme of darkness through much of it. So much darkness! The only complaint, would be the length. This could have easily been a more effective release as a 4 song EP with the reward having been so much more. It would have left the listener yearning for more, and then expecting a full record that would blow the minds of the fans old and new alike. I’m not saying this is a bad albumin any form or fashion. On the contrary, it is pretty awesome. It's just that in some cases I believe on the rule should be, “less is more”.

Darkness and aggressiveness on the same page are always a good combination in Black Metal, and Murdryck have managed to do a good representation of both.  I hope this album doesn’t go by unnoticed in the scene, because they would have been losing something different, and unique. A band that you could really end up cheering up for.

Songwriting: 10
Originality: 9
Memorability: 8
Production: 10