Myrkr

[Eoin McLove]

Back when the Rekwiz demo came out I was beginning to get really into BM and this evil sounding piece of work really caught my attention. It was one of the most focused sounding (and looking) demos to emerge from here and it felt like it stood apart in every way from what was going on locally, not least of all because the band was working with the very credible Debemur Morti Records. This was a local band who appeared to be aiming higher creatively and setting a new standard for other bands to aspire to. At least in my mind.  Other than Rebirth of Nefast, Altar of Plagues (who were always veering in another direction), and Slidhr (naturally) we are yet to witness another proper black metal band who operates in a similarly focused and accomplished way. I live in hope.

The new Slidhr album seems to nod back to the Myrkr days in terms of its sense of sheer nihilism and led me to revisit the excellent Offspring of Gathered Foulness EP. I think the Black Illumination album was cool but seemed to have moved into a more dissonant realm, maybe hinting at the direction Slidhr would follow,  and while Wann's vocals work well,  it seems a bit of a shame that the original vocalist vanished into thin air.  I can't help but imagine how that album might have sounded with him participating. 

Who knows,  maybe one day the original line-up will record something together again, but if not, a fine body of work remains.

[Grim Reality]

I only have the "offspring..." ep and it's never done much for me.  I don't really like Slidhr or Rebirth of Nefast a lot either.  Just not what floats my boat soundwise in black metal. Ireland is an absolute desert for black metal in comparison to the rather healthy death and doom metal scenes existing here for years. Off the top of my head the only Irish BM (not counting early Primordial) I got into was the Sodb demo and the Scath ba Deithe demo was promising too I suppose.

[Eoin McLove]

That's fair enough.  They won't necessarily be to everyone's taste but I think those bands are  and were, operating on another level to most black metal hopefuls from here.

[Eoin McLove]

Saturday night Guinness and Rekwiz. Winner.

[Pentagrimes]

While were talking about JD bands,was listening to Naddred again yesterday fir the first time in a bit. Hoping for some new stuff soon

[blessed1]

a bit of topic but as the poster said above we have a fairly large amount of death and doom bands and not really anything else apart from the odd few bands here and there. ever since i got into irish metal i noticed this. is there some reason behind this?

[Pentagrimes]

It's very off topic. But Irish people seem to be genetically incapable of producing good black metal apart from Deegan.It never really took off here.

Also "large number"??I can think of less than five decent death metal bands and even less doom bands of note.

[blessed1]

Also "large number"??I can think of less than five decent death metal bands and even less doom bands of note.

they dont have to be good to be counted as bands haha
its just something i noticed over the years.

[Hambeast]

There's definitely a huge imbalance between doom/sludge bands and black metal bands in the country. I could easily list off 10+ decent doom bands, but I'd struggle to think of 5 black metal bands who are either good or shit.

[polymer]

Didn't take Andy long to fire up a Myrkr thread 

[Eoin McLove]