Wednesday 10 April 2024
Islington Assembly Hall, London
****
Myrkur (Amalie Bruun) brings an eclectic set to Islington
The venue for tonight’s gig was Islington Assembly Hall, a Grade II listed building from the 1930s. Behind its Art Deco façade lurked a dark, Nordic forest. On closer inspection, it became apparent that the trees on the backdrop at the back of the stage formed the word Myrkur, which means darkness in Icelandic. A sign of things to come? Well, perhaps not quite – certainly the music wasn’t all dark…
The gig began with an ominous throbbing drone and atmospheric purple lighting before Myrkur (singer and songwriter/instrumentalist Amalie Bruun) came to the stage. She was flanked by her band, guitar to the left and bass to the right, apparently ready to do heavy metal battle. Above and behind sat the drummer who provided robust support when needed, including some fearsome double kick drum work. Bassist Maja Shining (Forever Still) also provided gorgeous backing vocals and occasional vocal duets with Bruun, and some evocative keyboard textures.
Bruun, surrounded by exotic foliage, immediately demonstrated her impressive vocal range, singing a haunting vocalise on opening song Bålfærd (‘Viking Funeral’). And the range and exoticism of her songwriting was soon evident, too. Over the course of four albums and various EPs and singles, she has combined black metal with Scandinavian folk music, sometimes on the same album. Her latest album, Spine, her most eclectic yet, formed the bulk of the setlist this evening, including a run of six songs at the start of the show. Like Humans, a plea for humanity not to be overtaken by Artificial Intelligence, began with a pummelling heavy guitar riff but had an earworm of a chorus, ‘Talk to me like humans do’, more pop than heavy metal. Mothlike, with its bubbling sequencers, was the child of New Order and black metal. A highlight of the first part of the set was a beautiful rendition of My Blood is Gold (#6 in the Off the Beaten Track series elsewhere on this blog), a spellbinding track that showcased the lower part of Bruun’s vocal register.
Bruun then delved back into her catalogue, with a couple of tracks from her 2017 album Mareidt, starting with The Serpent which wouldn’t be out of place on one of the later Opeth albums with its industrial riff at the start and its winding chorus melody. Crown again featured the very lowest part of Bruun’s vocal range at the start, followed by a soaring chorus two octaves above. In it stately majesty, it could have been from a soundtrack to a film about Vikings. (Bruun scored the Netflix series Ragnarock, partly based on Nordic myths). There was a brief return to the new album, with a lovely duet on Devil in the Detail between Bruun and Shining, both singing and playing keyboards, preceded by a rocky version of Blazing Sky.
The set ended with two songs from Bruun’s 2020 album Folkesange. First, Leaves of Yggdrasil, with its folk-inspired reference to the Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life. Then Bruun was then joined by Swedish folk singer Jonathan Hultén who was also the support act. Hultén came on stage wearing a magnificent head dress, reminiscent of the headgear worn by Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother in the recent Dune films, and a darkly gothic outfit. There was momentary confusion while Hultén searched for a capo for his acoustic guitar. Bruun saying she wasn’t good at speaking, despite her impeccable English, explained that she and Hultén had premiered a song together in Manchester the previous evening. The two went on to perform a gorgeous version of House Carpenter, a traditional Nordic folk song, attracting the most excited applause of the evening.
The encore consisted of two more tracks from Mareidt. The first, Ulvinde, again featured a vocal duet, and a deliciously dark, sinister drop of a semitone in the guitar parts. Bruun stepped onto the drum riser to perform vocal pyrotechnics and the song ended with a rousing cry of ‘Norge, Norge, Norge’ (‘Norway, Norway, Norway’). Finally, Death of Days, a bonus track from Mareidt, the gentle piano chords of the original replaced by guitar chords, the melismatic vocal styles of the chorus reminding us yet again what a versatile singer (and song writer) Bruun is.
Nick Holmes Music 