MÖRK GRYNING “Return Fire” /Digipack CD/

The debut full-length studio album by cult Swedish Melodic Black Metal band.
Although they've wallowed in the shadows of better-known Scandinavian bands like Emperor and Dimmu Borgir due to inferior promotion and internal problems, Sweden's Mörk Gryning have accomplished quite a bit over the course of their four-album career. Like these and other champions of that region's exciting local scene, Mörk Gryning's core creative duo of Goth Gorgon and Draakh Kimera meld Death and Black Metal with a vast array of less obvious styles: Industrial, Doom, Symphonic, and even more traditional Thrash Metal riffing among them. While proving somewhat difficult to digest at times, this eclectic sonic soup is certainly never boring, and often downright thrilling.
Opener "The Sleeping Star", for instance, smacks of Swiss Death Metal Industrialists Samael jamming with Paradise Lost, while the furiously paced Black Metal of "The Cradle of Civilization" bridges the gap between Dimmu's complex orchestrations and Marduk's straightforward bludgeoning before descending into a delicately mournful, string quartet-led coda. The same variety of disparate stylistic tricks permeates the reigning, primal aggression underpinning every single song that follows, be it the hypnotically organic grooves of "Our Urn", the dense harmonies and ambient nuances of "An Old Man's Lament", the fancy-free power chords and chorused vocals of "The Worm", or even the Gothic overtones and Baroque keyboards heard on "Fragments and Pieces". Simply put, the resourceful invention to be found on "Pieces Of Primal Expressionism" can easily challenge any and all of Mörk Gryning's competition in modern Extreme Metal.
No Fashion Records/Irond Ltd., 2003/2004 (IROND CD 04-732). Made in ruzzia. Used (cover/disc): NM/EX+.


Tracklist:
1. The Sleeping Star 07:06 
2. The Cradle of Civilization 05:51 
3. Perpetual Dissolution 05:30 
4. Our Urn 06:18 
5. An Old Man's Lament 06:16 
6. The Worm 06:18 
7. Fragments and Pieces 06:57 
8. On the Verge of Prime Divinity 06:52
Total playing time: 51:08 min.

The first re-release of the third full-length studio album by cult Swedish Melodic Black Metal band.
Following a four-year break since the previous album, masters of blackened melody adjust their direction, bidding farewell to linear nineties tradition and greeting the new millennium with a much more refined, diverse, ambitious, bombastic and orchestral approach.
The band's third record was recorded in the legendary Grieghallen Studios in Bergen, Norway and produced by Norwegian producer Pytten (Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor).
Taking a more orchestral approach with epic arrangements and longer songs, this album is seem as the most bombastic of the band’s discography to date, culminating with the incorporation of Mozart's "Lacrimosa" in the song "The Menace". Vocal variety adds in more menacing, darker vibe, not so uncommon in Death Metal too. Add to that some acoustic breaks, Heavy Metal solos, not to forget trademark infernal riffing, and you get a picture of what to expect from this quite underrated release, standing in league with latter Diabolical Masquerade opuses.
"Maelstrom Chaos" is a stand-out release due to its sheer brutality combined with solid songwriting and very deep melodic feeling. There is a huge ability to mix speed and brutality with atmosphere and melody, something very difficult to achieve if you are not a capable musician, and here we have a top-notch executed album!
Season Of Mist, 2001/2020 (SOM 597D). Made in France. Pressed in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. A Perception Of The Ancient 2:19
2. Templars 8:14
3. Ont Blod 3:18
4. The Menace 4:42
5. Maelstrom Chaos 3:36
6. My Friends 6:17
7. The Darkness Within 5:48
8. Bloodspring Mirage 2:57
9. Forever Unhallowed Preponderance 5:51
10. Dödens Skald 5:16
Total playing time: 48:18 min.

Samples: https://morkgryningofficial.bandcamp.com/

The first re-release of the fourth full-length studio album by cult Swedish Melodic Black Metal band.
While much debated at the time of its release in 2003, "Pieces Of Primal Expressionism" is now regarded as the band’s most daring and experimental release.
Recorded and produced with David Bergstrand and Örjan Örnkloo (Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, In Flames, Dark Funeral), the Swedes built a gargantuan wall of sound with disharmonic clusters, resulting in a record that was very different from the band’s previous material.
"Pieces Of Primal Expressionism" was ultimately nominated for an award on the Swedish national radio and is a key step in the evolution of the band’s sound and discography.
Season Of Mist, 2003/2020 (SOM 598D). Made in France. Pressed in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. The Sleeping Star 7:07
2. The Cradle Of Civilization 5:52
3. Perpetual Dissolution 5:31
4. Our Urn 6:19
5. An Old Man's Lament 6:17
6. The Worm 6:19
7. Fragments And Pieces 6:58
8. On The Verge Of Prime Divinity 6:53
Total playing time: 51:16 min.


Samples: https://morkgryningofficial.bandcamp.com/