MURG – Strävan, CD

Strävan - "striving" or "endeavour" - is the third album of the anonymous Swedish black metal duo MURG. Strävan finalizes the trilogy begun in 2015 with the debut album Varg och Björn (Wolf and bear) and was continued with Gudatall (Godpine). Here in this final chapter, humankind as we know it with all our flaws and perversions no longer exists: a new form is created, a perfect beast born to sacrifice itself to end the entire universe. "Strävan" is the long audial march to the altar of cosmic destruction.

Murg's pitch black metal is driven by slow-paced, churning riffs imbued with stoic darkness and aggressive pride, sinister and somber meandering throughout its eight tracks. Similar to the terse song titles, Murg works with a musical sparseness: tightly-knit structures without frills or special effects, straight to the bone but never simplistic or predictable. A noble and inhuman fare thee well to creation, towering and defiant in its uncompromising delivery.