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Review:
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It is a miracle that this CD now sits before me. Firstly,
I nearly dismissed this album because these Icelanders describe
their music as ‘death pop’, which conjures up images of
Cannibal Corpse jamming with Lady Gaga, a truly terrifying
prospect. Further investigation revealed that the drummer
is a death metal fan, while the rest of the band are pop
fans, hence ‘death pop’, simple really, thankfully the rest
of us would call it gothic rock, so we are on safe ground.
Then the band had technical problems with the first pressings,
must have been a difficult time, you get all excited about
receiving the first copies of the album you have worked
so hard on, only to find they are faulty. Finally, the CD
had to dodge the ash cloud that has brought the whole of
Europe to a grinding halt. But here it is, safe and sound.
The name Myrká, by the way, comes from an Icelandic ghost
story; it is the place where a ghostly deacon kept on trying
to abduct a young lady called Gudrún, until an exorcist
sorted him out. The sound is The Doors mixed with a touch
of Hawkwind, early post Barrett Pink Floyd, The Damned,
The Stranglers and The Mission, packed full of heavenly
Hammond organ courtesy of Stefán, topped with Guðný’s awesome
voice which strongly reminds me of Sarah Jezebel Deva (in
non operatic mode). The album is stuffed with humdingers,
‘Unborn’, ‘Sad World’, ‘Now It’s Gone’, and ‘Neurosis’ to
name but a few, the whole CD sounding like a lost classic
from 1969, but with bang up to date 21st century production
values. My fave is ‘My Prison’ which sounds like a cross
between ‘Silver Machine’ and ‘Telstar’ by the Tornados,
or for those of you of a younger vintage, like the version
done by the son of their guitarist George Bellamy - Matthew
Bellamy and Muse’s ‘Knights of Cydonia’.
I am in Hammond heaven with this, it is wonderful to
hear a specialist organists again, a truly wondrous sound,
not forgetting the excellent contributions from guitarist
Guðjón and drummer Helgi. This is a seriously groovy, mega
melodic opus for all you bat cavers out there, easily available
from CD Baby, and their Myspace is http://www.myspace.com/myrkamusic.
If this is ‘death pop’, then I am most certainly a convert,
9 out of 10.
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