Review Summary: Carrying the torch to the new century.
Back in 1992, Håvard Ellefsen, then bass player in the seminal Norwegian black metal act
Emperor, left the band to focus on his personal project
Mortiis, playing what he later defined "dark dungeon music"; he went on releasing in 1993
Mortiis' first demo "The song of a long forgotten ghost", placing the first milestone on the path which would eventually lead to the genre known today as "dungeon synth".
Exactly twenty years later, Murgrind, a German one-man dungeon synth act born out of the underground black metal/dungeon synth band Arath, released his first album "Journey through the mountain". While probably being a coincidence, this temporal element carries an appropriate symbolic meaning, as Murgrind openly reaps where Mortiis sow, picking up where the latter left in 1996 with his final "pure" dark dungeon music release "Crypt of the wizard" and bringing the original spirit to its updated, 21st century reincarnation.
The early master's epic, dark and claustrophobic atmospheres are skillfully recreated and enhanced with the aid of modern production values in "Journey through the mountain", which is a concept album set in Murgrind's own fantasy world about a subterranean trip through that world's largest mountain: the music conveys feelings of awe and dread, evoking imagery of cavernous halls, passages and tunnels carved in stone where hordes of evil creatures lurk; the compositional style is focused on atmosphere, a field in which Murgrind really shines, revealing a few key melodies scattered throughout and moving through a subtle range of dynamics. Interest is kept high by arrangements, which are dense and layered, built upon a synthetic orchestra of brass, strings, woodwinds, choirs and percussions, peppered by several other instruments appearing here and there; the use of brass sections is very reminiscent of
Mortiis' style, but the perfect interplay between brass and woodwinds shows off the best of Murgrind's compositional talent. The neat production, courtesy of Arath bandmate Solvalt, contributes to making the music give off a sheer sense of epicness.
"Journey through the mountain" is as solid as a debut album can be, thriving in atmosphere and feel, faithful to the old-school black metal spirit and dark dungeon sound, while clearly aiming to raise the bar for future releases and fully succeeding in this task.
