Mork — Ferdamann (Official Video)
Ferdamann means the wanderer, and that is exactly what this sounds like. Cold, patient, riff-first Norwegian black metal from a man who has been doing this alone since 2004. Monolitt is out now on Peaceville and this is the track to start with.
Thomas Eriksen has run Mork alone since 2004. Halden, Norway. The debut Isebakke took nine years to surface, and he has not slowed down since. Monolitt landed on 19 June through Peaceville. Ferdamann is the track that got the video treatment.
Good choice. The title translates as the wanderer. One of the oldest images in Scandinavian black metal: the solitary figure crossing forests and mountains under a sky that does not care. The song plays it straight. Mid-tempo. Cold. Riffs that trust repetition instead of tricks. No symphonics. No post-anything. Norwegian tradition kept in working order by someone who clearly still believes in it.
It sounds physical too. Asgeir Mickelson plays drums on the album and it gives the record a spine a drum machine never could.
Second wave nostalgia is cheap these days. Every other week a new band cosplays 1993. Mork does not cosplay. Twenty-two years in, this is simply what Eriksen does. And the metal press agrees for once. Metallian gave Monolitt a perfect score.
Listen to this: Mork - Monolitt