Sorg
Haf Sem Ber Tímans Og Harmanna Farg
Dark Metal, Black Metal
Released 9th June 2021
Self Released
It’s always interesting looking under the hood of the metal world. Sometimes you dig up gold and sometimes you find something that’s very pure in potential. So let me introduce you to Sorg a one-man metal project from Iceland. Víðir “Mýrmann” Thrastarsonand is an Icelandic painter, musician, and philosopher who put this interesting album together. Haf sem ber tímans og harmanna farg (roughly translated: A sea that carries time and hare disposal) takes on themes of alchemy, romanticism, folklore, philosophy, and history. I have to say I was engaged and impressed all at the same time. The fact that this was all produced by one person astounds me and it clearly took a powerful vision and great persistence to make.
Sonically the album is dark and brooding with Víðir’s vocals brewing in the background. The album chugs along at the same pace throughout. The guitar roars to life on all of the tracks and there is just such a heavy presence of bass. The drums are a bit faded in the background and I would have liked them to be a little more present in the mix to give the album a bit more impact. The whole album feels a little one-note. However, Sorg just hits that note as hard as possible. The album is really heavy, so yeah this is not for the average consumer of music. There are no hooks or earworms to be found here. But the dark poetry in this album really hit hard once the iffy production aside.
This is something that you have to be in the mood for. It’s a small project that’s been made outside of the mainstream publishing system. So it doesn’t have that clean sheen of a major label release. It’s definitely difficult to listen to because of that lack of quality production. Also, the songs seem to be missing that big punch of a good hook. However, I still feel the writing that is there is interesting enough. Like I said there’s pure potential here and I hope Sorg continues to improve.
7/10
Mick Birchall
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Valkyrian Music 