Mörk Gryning (Dark Dawn) was a Swedish melodic black metal band formed in '93 and lead by Jonas Berndt (AKA Goth Gorgon), but after just a little over ten years he decided to lay the band to rest in '05 due to his lack of interest in extreme metal.
'Tusen år har gått...' was the bands debut and at the time of this release the two members were just fifteen and eighteen year old kids, which is really something considering how impressive the musicianship and overall feeling of this recording is. On this album the band had many fast blasting black metal sections, but also some incredibly memorable slower melodic and atmospheric parts that were utterly breathtaking to say the least. Some of the guitar melodies in this record are among some of the most beautiful I've ever heard and the atmosphere is absolutely majestic at times. The band also included a few acoustic parts, guitar solos, short synth flourishes and clear vocals amongst the usual fast drumming and grim raspy blackened screams. What’s more the album is a concept album centering around the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the fall of heaven through the eyes of Nidas, one of the riders.
Like most early Swedish black metal you can pick out the Dissection influence and as much as I do adore Dissection I sometimes prefer this record over there first two albums. Unfortunately by the time the band released their last two albums in '03 & '05 they had simplified there music to the point where it was fairly basic Swedish melodic death metal, although their 2001 effort 'Maelstrom Chaos' was a nice return to form it failed to fully capture the intense beauty of this debut.
All things considered Tusen år har gått is definitely one of the best Swedish black metal recordings to be unleashed in the mid 90’s. As such I absolutely implore you to check out this often overlooked band.
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