Entry 279 - Misthyrming - Meo Hamri

 

My enjoyment of Misthyrming seems to be completely random. I'll put on an album of theirs and it'll sound like some of the best Icelandic black metal ever created. I'll the same album on a few weeks later and it'll sound like utter trash. I have no idea why this happens, but it's been happening for years now.

Something seems a little different with Meo Hamri though. The more I listen to it the more... the more it sinks in... the more it makes sense. Things are starting to fall in place. This has never happened before with one of this band's albums. It's either feast or famine, never a gradual unveiling of it's treasures.

Let's take side A for instance. The first track is a chaotic mess that almost made me turn off the album the first time I heard it. By the fifth time I was used to it and just let it be what it is... it's the only track on the side that has this level of dissonance to it.

The remaining songs focus much more on creating a deep sense of unease in the listener. Sure they still go all out with the blasting, but its much more controlled and the riffs make more sense than the opener. In between all the tracks are little snippets of dark ambience that only serve to enhance the sense of growing unease. I'm finding that I quite like this.

After spending some quality time with Misthyrming's newest album I think I'm going to go back to the other two and see if there is something that I've missed. I bought this one with the hope that it would click and I would find it enjoyable. I'm still worried about my history with this band, but for now at least it seems like the goal of actually liking an album by these guys has been achieved.