Morkesagn

Morkesagn (Ukraine)

Where the Darkness Never Ends

release date: 2015

This week I would like to bring to your attention this professional, quality black metal recording. This one is a rather traditional black metal album, but the difference is that you can hear everything clearly. In other words, it sounds like it was recorded to be a professional album, not a cave black metal album. The guitar work is clear, sharp, fast, and pleasant to the black metal ear. Tremolo picking, fast riffs and cold/melancholic melodies are three guitar traits that help to define the colors of the album. The vocals are mostly upfront, traditional semi-comprehensible black metal vocals (not too distant from Dimmu Borgir or Satyricon), but there is a bit of other styles here and there, some lower gruff growling, some chanting/atmospheric vocals, for instance. The drum sound, while undoubtedly solid for modern extreme metal, does not allow the listener to really, really hear the drummer go to town: it sounds too much like we can only hear the double bass kicks and one drum piece, and on occasion, a bit of a drum roll. Surely, the drummer does more than one drum and double bass.

The song themselves is where the band does its best work. There is a sense of time well spent on the arranging of the songs, and on keeping the headbanging at front and center. There are slower moments in some places, but it’s not too long and it never ruins the songs. The album is not constant blasting, not at all; a variety of speeds is readily audible throughout, but it all flows well.

In short, this week, this black metal work has stood out and should be of interest to the audiences that support this particular genre.

www.morkesagn-band.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/morkesagn