MYRKUR (Amalie Bruun) translates weirdly as ‘Dark Current’ in Mr Google. Perhaps it should be ‘blackcurrant’ as she’s possibly the first artist I’ve come who can combine folk and black metal.
The single ‘Like Humans’ is streaming now and will feature on her new album (she has several of them to her credit already) ‘Spine’, which is out on October 20th on Relapse, which is definitely the sort of label name I would immediately associate with metal!
You know, when I read the artist name and title I thought it said ‘MYRKUR likes humans’, as if she’s just arrived from Planet Zog to check some out.
And visibly she looks like a cross between Adele and the Swedish Goth Memoria, at least in this picture. The plot thickens.
Add to that her name written in a manner you might expect to find hanging from a tree in The Blair Witch Project in a promotional photo, and you read that her previous album ‘Mareridt’ was “nightmare induced” and the opening track on her new one translates as ‘Viking Funeral’ while a later one gets stuck into the Valkyries, then the scene is set for something dark, mysterious ad mythological.
But this track at least only partly conjures up those images. I said earlier she has the capability to combine folk (well, more like folk-pop) and metal and that’s what she does here, and I get the impression she’s scaled down the heavier side of her musical persona.
Perhaps that is something to do with the fact that, as I understand it, she is a new mother. The first child in particular always impacts on musical direction.
I’ve witnessed it countless times over the years and no matter how ‘ethereal’ an artist might be and even if she tackles (as she does on this album) subjects as depressing as pandemic lockdowns, restrictions and isolation, Artificial Intelligence and the coming New World Order (‘You will own nothing and be happy’) hope for the future of the child at least will always shine through in those circumstances.
So while she sings from the top,
“Under the sun/Under the new religion/I’m having fun/And I want to die”,
The line “Talk to me like humans do” could be an entreaty to a child to embrace its own future.
It’s just like humans to adopt that approach after all.
Find her on:
Website: https://www.myrkurmusic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myrkurmyrkur Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrkurmyrkur/
