Spine

Songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun has taken her work as Myrkur to several disparate places, first emerging as an ambient black metal entity with gothic undertones, and later leaning hard into traditional Scandic folk music played on authentically rustic acoustic instruments on her 2020 album Folkesange. With Spine, Bruun brings Myrkur into a new form once again, retaining some of the black metal and folk aspects of her earlier work but relegating them to undercurrents in a dark pop sound. "Like Humans" is menacing and dissonant, but keeps its heaviness on a slow boil, Bruuns vocal harmonies loud in the mix and rising up in a hooky chorus. Theres a section of black metal blastbeats near the end of the song, but even thats reined in by an overarching dour pop presence. There are EDM kick drums and synth arpeggios on "Mothlike" and ghostly strings and atmospheric pianos on the title song, while standout track "Valkyriernes Sang" successfully merges black metal fury with commanding melodic songwriting. The song serves as a mission statement for all of Spine, achieving demonic, wraithlike vocals, mystical harmonies, a breakdown of speedy metal riffing, and even the sounding of foreboding trumpets, all in a runtime just shy of four minutes. These mismatched elements usually gel nicely, with Bruun even evoking a little of Lana Del Reys noir torch song essence on "Devil in the Detail" without the song sounding jarringly different from the rest of the album. Spine gets by on ambition alone, with inspired compositions and bold combinations of sounds and ideas making for one of the more interesting chapters of Myrkurs ever-changing saga. ~ Fred Thomas