She has nothing to prove to anyone, and a lot of the criticism towards her has been transparently misogynistic.

I had only vaguely been aware of the controversy she inspired two years ago when she released her Relapse Records debut M.

It was an album Id picked up after being drawn to its cover art on a display rack of new releases at a local record store (Cactus Music for you H-Towners), not even realizing for half a second that it was by the lady whod been shaking the black metal beehive online.

I largely enjoyed it, finding it a strange collection of music that veered between classic black metal era Ulver and a darker strain of Enya.

It wasnt as its promotional hype claimed the future of black metal or whatever the quote was from that Terrorizer cover, but it was an interesting and often inspired listen.

Fast forward to now, and Amalie Bruun is releasing her sophomore album under the Myrkur banner, and shes actually leaned a great deal into the direction I hoped she would.

I wrote in my review for M that I found myself growing to enjoy the more ethereal side of her work more, the clean vocal directed haunting soundtrack to some fog drenched Norwegian forest.

It wasnt that she couldnt deliver convincing grim vocals, she certainly can, but I think that raw second wave Norwegian black metal aspect of her sound was her weakest link because its influences were so obvious to all of us well versed in that genre.

Most of it was stuff taken from the Nattens Madrigal playbook and didnt really bring anything new to the table.

Similarly on Maneblot, the track begins with a pure black metal approach only to later find Bruun switching to clean vocals over the same bed of frenzied tempos and abrasive walls of noise.

Partway through, theres an abrupt shift to rustic violins screeching a tortured folk melody in a cavern of silence only to be slowly crushed in by the black metal seeping in through the cracks - like water engulfing the creaking hold of a ship.

Those kinds of change-ups and attention to sonic details are what make Mareridts black metal aspects way more interesting than Ms ever were.

Shes found her footing here, understanding that pure blanket second wave black metal shouldnt be her end goal, that it should be used as an element of a greater sonic palette.

On Ulvinde, one of the albums stranger tracks, she couches blasts of her black metal vocals directly against an almost Tori Amos-esque plaintative vocal, one thats almost sedate in its abrupt juxtaposition.

On this and many other tracks, shes found a way to blend black metal elements like tremolo-riffing, double-kick (even blastbeats at times) with decidedly non black metal tempos, song structures, and melodies.

Sure, its walking down the path that artists like Alcest paved; to create something new by merging black metal with an outside genre (in their case, shoegaze).

What Bruun is doing here sounds more like a marriage between black metal and the strong, defined folk of Loreenna McKennitt (and thats awesome, in case youre wondering who the latter is).

Even here shes improved by broadening her palette, no longer solely relying on the delicately ethereal, but exploring grittier, earthier variations on traditional folk melodies that often weave beautifully dark webs.

The rumbling Kaetteren is one of these, setting the scene of musicians around a quietly flickering fire in the Scandinavian hillsides.

My favorite song is the truly spectacular Death of Days, a Dead Can Dance styled meditation with a swirling melody thats utterly hypnotic.

Theres a lot to process over these fifteen tracks, and Im glad that Bruun decided to keep things short and sharp (just like Eluveitie with their recent eighteen track Evocation II ), with no tracks hitting the five minute mark.

Ive experienced sleep paralysis myself, its wasnt pleasant to say the least (absolutely terrifying when I didnt even realize what it was at first), so my interest in Mareridt (Danish for nightmare) has only deepened on a lyrical level.

I think I went into this expecting to like it, but not love it, that perhaps Bruun would make the mistake of trying what Deafheaven did, to get purposefully aggressive in order to win over some of the metal set.

That she did the opposite is not only shrewd, but refreshing.

Kamelot Discografia Dvd Torrent