Origin:	New York City, New York, USA
Genres:	Black Metal

Page online:	June 18, 2021
Last update/review:	November 4, 2023

Myrkur

The tale of Myrkur's rapid rise in the metal underground is a curious and fascinating one. From out of nowhere came this mysterious, one-woman black metal artist, already signed to a major metal label in Relapse Records, and as the positive reviews came in, so did a seemingly endless rush of negative fan criticism and scorn. It seems that the outrage centered on two aspects -- one, Relapse massively overhyped (and probably misrepresented) her, and two, she was eventually revealed to be a Danish pop star in one Amalie Bruun, thus supposedly destroying the project's true kvlt metal credibility. Neither of these are Bruun's fault, and it's discouraging that the backlash clouded objective opinions/reviews of the music at hand. And about the music: first, one must realize that those expecting a full-on black metal assault aren't going to find it here. Albums such as 2017's Mareridt do feature black metal traces, mixed with plenty of ambient folk influences and Bruun's graceful soprano vocals (though she can and does perform some convincing black metal shrieks as well). As such, it's capably done, and at times quite captivating, though again not from a pure metal standpoint. Moving forward, it appears that the novelty, in some sense, seems to have waned, possibly due to the latest album (2020's Folkesange) completely dropping the metal aspects and focusing on ambient folk music.