It’s a common fact that bands from the second wave of Black Metal slowly changed their style into a more mainstream variant of it (I don’t need to give examples). Some could say that it’s a shame and they’re probably right in my opinion. But there are also bands that prove evolving is not necessarily a bad word in Black Metal. One of those bands is Mörk Gryning from Sweden. They debuted in 1995 with the devastating Tusen År Har Gått..., which was very Norwegian for a Swedish band. I liked it a lot and their follow up Return Fire was from the same calibre and those albums are still assaulting my CD-player even today. Their third CD (Maelstrom Chaos) I’ve never heard actually, but when I received this album Pieces Of Primal Expressionism I was stunned! Mörk Gryning in the year 2003 stands for ‘intelligent’ Black Metal so to say.

Song structures are complex and exciting. For instance the opening song “The Sleeping Star” has a menacing structure that ends in a Satyricon-like climax. That’s just an example of what you can expect from the rest of the CD. And to make it more diverse, the band added some instruments that are very strange to Black Metal, like a violin, trombone and a mellotrone. This mixture of elements resulted in a refreshing album in these times of mediocrity.