Myhrding "Nordens mörkaste kapitel" CD

Swedish trio Myhrding return with their sophomore album, Nordens Mörkaste Kapitel, which was pushed back to the end of 2014. Though the band's imagery is of undiluted black metal of the darkest order, the band's sound is actually more in line with melodic, guitar-driven black metal with touches of the pagan scene throughout. The band's debut album, A Legacy of Shadows (2012), saw the band focusing on moderately paced dual guitar harmonies amidst screamed rasps and blackened imagery, and the follow up only differs in that the band is down to a single guitar.
The tried and true melodic riffing on melodic death metal's early forerunners, such as In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, is woven throughout a tapestry of somewhat folkened melodies played through the guise of trem riffs, similar to what Mithotyn played at before turning into Falconer. There's no genre reinventions here, only fifty minutes of melodic blackened death metal with plenty of hook-laden riffs and raspy screams. The guitar riffs are solid and enjoyable; nothing overly intricate, but with a pleasant flow of mid-tempo melodic riffs throughout.
While the band may market their music as black metal, what they truly excel at are excellent melodic hooks, like during “A Purifacation of the Earth”. The heavy yet melodic, hook-laden riffing, reminiscent of Whoracle era In Flames is enough to get any head banging. When compared to the rather dismal trem picking on “Never Meant to Be”, it just shows that the band's strengths lie in playing hook-laden blackened melodic death metal, not mid-tempo black metal. Seriously, when the band works on galloping and melodic riffs they rock pretty hard, but when the go for standard black metal they trip themselves up.
The band may excel at blackened melo-death, but the band's mediocrity when it comes to playing mid-paced black metal is rather evident. “Never Meant to Be”, aside from dull and dreary riffing, showcases a super cheesy keyboard effect meant to sound folkish or pagan, but it fails to add anything but a chuckle. Interestingly enough, the opening track, “En förlorad själ”, shows that subtle acoustic guitars in the intro can be more than enough to obtain that natural, pagan sound. There are also a few specks of clean, chanted vocals throughout, which really don't take away from the album at all, but seem a little forced.
Fans of black metal and melodic death metal should find more than a few tracks to their liking on Nordens Mörkaste Kapitel. The band's few attempts at standard black metal pretty much fall flat, so I'm not sure why they keep trying it. The melodic hooks during “Griftefärd” and “A Purifacation of the Earth” have enough heaviness and melodic sensibilities that any fan of guitar-driven melodic death metal should feel right at home with. Fans of Varg, Minas Morgul and Ancestors Revenge should take note. If Myhrding focuses on what their good at, they could release a bomb, but for now this is mostly passable melodic blackened death metal with a portion of filler.

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