Morvigor Is Back With a New EP, “De spiegel”!
Back in 2017 Dutch death/black metal band Morvigor released an excellent full-length called Tyrant. Things had seemed quiet since then, so I e-mailed them directly to say, “is there any new material coming?” and the answer was “yes, soon”. After the ~7 year wait, they have graced us with their new EP titled De spiegel, and it’s a little shift in direction.
Tyrant was prominently a death metal album with a bit of black metal flavor. But in the years since then, the band has “emerged from a period of metamorphosis with renewed purpose and a clear vision for their future” according to the promo materials; and now are focusing more on expressive black metal, a version which I will confidently label as “progressive”. De spiegel is two tracks, but runs an impressive 20 minutes; and for the songwriting process, the band had this to say:
Although they view their cryptic lyrics as an inessential part of the Morvigor experience, they traverse themes of existentialism, absurdism, and philosophical thought anchored in feelings of alienation, curiosity, anxiety and wonder. Lyrics are written as a stream of consciousness by bassist Evio, with his individual experiences flowing freely through short bursts of intuitive, freeform writing. He comments, “With each word I write, or each note I play, I try to find expression for how I experience existence.”
I’ll admit that black metal isn’t my favorite subgenre, and so something has to really stand out to grab my attention. De spiegel certainly does that: rather than adhering to tried-and-true black metal tropes, it traverses multiple styles of music such as post-metal and ambient, includes both harsh and melodic vocals, to create what they describe as a “cinematic” sound. These 20 minutes will take you on a journey with more twists and turns than your standard full-length black metal album. Give it a listen and see if you enjoy it as much as I do!
De spiegel was released on February 26th, 2024. Recorded in 2022 in their home country of The Netherlands, the EP was then mixed by Daniel Souza and mastered by Jack Shirley; De Spiegel will be released on CD, vinyl, tape and digital formats by Onism Records and Vita Detestabilis Records.
The beautiful artwork was painted by Frank Stolwijk, who also did the artwork for Tyrant.
Social media links:
Instagram, Facebook, Website, Spotify, and of course BandCamp.
(Images via Morvigor.)
