Artist: Nyrst
Title: Orsok
Label: Dark Essence Records
Cat #: KAR187LPC
Release Year: 2020
Duration: Album
Format: Vinyl LP
Packaging Type: Gatefold Sleeve
Special Attributes: Blue Black Marbled Vinyl

Deluxe limited edition coloured vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

Orsök is a crisp forty-minute record with only six songs. You’ve got everything from a calming, two-minute, mid-album intermission to a bombastic builder that clocks in at ten. As one can imagine, it’s the kind of record that requires attention, as well as a few spins to experience the nuances. Orsök isn’t an album of groundbreaking innovations to the black metal sound. Neither is it a reinvention. It’s a barebones disc meant to capture the chilliness of the far north.

And what better way to begin than with the frigid “Æðri verur.” Dripping of the ugliness of Mayhem, the opening number sets off on a nine-minute trek through snow and ice. Like a biting wind that feels forty degrees colder than what the thermometer says, the atmosphere of “Æðri verur” digs deep. Thanks, in a big way, to the distant rasps, growls, screams, and desperate “cleans.” There’re no twists or turns in “Æðri verur.” It’s a straightforward representation of what’s coming next.

Recommended if you like: Mayhem, Marduk, Watain, Belphegor, Nordjevel, Kampfar, Djevel

Track Listing:
A1. Æðri Verur
A2. Orsök
A3. Nástirni

B1. Athöfn
B2. Hvísl Hinna Holdlausu
B3. Turnar Í Fjarska