Bekmørk – The Path Nocturnal

Artist: Bekmørk

Album Title: The Path Nocturnal

Label: Horns High Records

Date of Release: 27 May 2022

I thought long and hard before deciding to write this review, for many reasons. Firstly, I don’t enjoy writing reviews that are not positive, or have something positive to say – I generally try to leave that to others. Secondly, I don’t consider myself to be well enough versed with the underground black metal movement to even profess to know about all the bands and their offerings, and where this release may fit within that. And thirdly, I really don’t like music that has such a lo-fi production that the music is robbed of its power and clarity to a point that means that the result is damn near unlistenable. Unfortunately, Bekmørk fall into both points one and three on this list but in the end, I listened to some sage advice I received a while back, suggesting that I don’t just review everything that I like. Plus, in a year where I’ve been described as a ‘machine’ when it comes to my music listening and reviewing, I didn’t think it’d hurt to mix things up a little bit.

You can already tell that I’m not a fan of ‘The Path Nocturnal’, the second album from Bekmørk, a band that’s essentially a Norwegian duo, comprised of Malevolent Berserker and Dread Count Naberius. No, I’m not kidding. Both are credited with guitar, bass, and keyboard duties, whilst the former takes care of the drums and the latter, the vocals.

Aside from the ludicrous names, something with which the black metal genre isn’t unfamiliar, the first massive faux pas here is the length of ‘The Path Nocturnal’. Billed as an album but only comprised of five tracks that don’t even reach the twenty-minute mark, is sharp advertising. In the UK, it’d come very close to breaking consumer laws. This is an MCD or EP depending on your viewpoint. It is not a full-length album. Strike one.

From there, the strikes keep on coming I’m afraid. Having already played fast and loose with the truth in the press release, the blurb then talks of “growls that claw their way from the abyss” as well as the way in which the music features “the band’s trademark morbid riffs”, and so it goes on. I genuinely thought I was listening to the wrong music when I pressed play for the first time, because what I hear bears little or no resemblance to what’s been written. I fully admit that there will be a difference of opinion here, but what I hear is basic music. Basic to the point that it feels almost childlike but not in a good way. To me, that’s not what I want to hear, unless it was created by the hands of my two daughters, both of whom are under ten years of age.

If I’m being totally honest, I wanted to review this so that it gave you all a chance to take a listen. I laughed at points, I really did. I still do, and that can’t be a good thing. Words like ‘frenzied’ and ‘chilling’ are used to describe parts of the material, in reference to the track ‘Black Waltz’ in particular. The only reason it sounds frenzied is because the production is so bad, you can’t hear anything. And the only reason it sounds chilling is because this music actually got a record deal.

The intro guitar melody to ‘Red Snow (The Saga Of Haakon Haraldsson)’ is halfway decent, but is crucially hamstrung by some notes that are wrong or at least slightly out of tune, as well as the ridiculous vocals. And then, suddenly, we’re dealt a bout of cacophonous aggression that’s hard to decipher, but which isn’t all that exciting when finally, my ears acclimatised to what I was hearing. The drumming in frenetic and the guitars deliver fast riffs, but they really aren’t that interesting.

It says something when the best musicianship on the entire record appears within the final song, ‘Empress Of Charn’, and it’s by a guest. In this case, it is a fast, reasonably engaging lead guitar solo, with a sense of melody, created by the hands of another ridiculously monikered individual by the name of Kilmoore Bludpainter. Again, no, I’m not kidding. The end of the song is then ruined by some bizarre sounds that might be vocals, or they might be a bee trapped in the studio near the microphones. Either way, it isn’t good, not in my opinion anyway.

The final words on the press release refer to ‘The Path Nocturnal’ as “a brutal continuation of Bekmørk’s ode to second wave black metal. All I can say is that if all second wave black metal sounds like this, I don’t have any desire to investigate further. Unless you genuinely find this sort of thing enjoyable, then I’d give it the widest berth possible.

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