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Mur – Mur

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Mur - Mur

Mur - Mur
4

Rating

 4.0/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very wide and virtuous progressive metal sound
  • Good atmosphere

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some tracks feel lengthy

Iceland is among my favorite travel spots in the world. I am also very fascinated by the Icelandic music scene. A band from that country, Mur (correct spelling Múr) released their self-titled debut album on 22nd November 2024. Here is my review.

 

Mur – About The Artists

Mur are a quintet from Iceland. They do a mixture of post-rock and progressive metal. Even though some of the band members have quite a history in music, the band started to release songs in 2024. However, they had some success in previous year, like placing fourth in the international Wacken Metal Battle in Wacken, Germany, in 2022. The band’s frontman is Kari Haraldsson (vocals, keytar, synth). The other band members are Hilmir Arnason, Jon Isak Ragnarsson (both guitars), Ivar Klausen (bass) and drummer Arni Jökull Godbjartsson.

 

Mur – Mur – Track by Track

The seven track album lasts 54 minutes.

1. Eldhaf

The album opens epically with a nine minute trip to the “Sea of Fire” (what Eldhaf finally means). The 90 second intro to the track is slow and could easily open for an ambient track as well. However, the Icelanders take out their guitars thereafter and clearly state that their sound is not that cuddly. The track slowly builds up a nice plot, introducing new themes on the guitar side and defines a great atmosphere, mainly based on their guitar and bass sound. Sounds promising.

2. Múr

The second song is Mur (“Wall”). The title track of the album is “just” some six minutes long and gets into its main part much quicker than Eldhaf. This time, Kari Haraldsson is also very present on the microphone with nice growling. The drums are hammering in the background, which overall leads to a much darker atmosphere. Towards the end of the track, the guitar feel to play more freely, which leads to a rather virtuous touch. Here and there, the band feels to push a bit too much.

3. Frelsari

Frelsari is one of three singles already featured before the album release. Thereby, this song (“Savior”) is the shortest on the album – which still means, it is slightly longer than four minutes. No long intro here, though – the band is releasing the full metal power and sounds as dark as an Icelandic day in winter. The track is forceful, but also rather straight and thus leads to a quite straight and clear listen.

4. Vitrun

Time for an epic track again. Despite its duration of 9:37 minutes, Vitrun (“Vision”) is just the third longest song on Mur. Haraldsson’s keytar is very present in the background. Overall, Vitrun feels a bit too lengthy – two minutes less would have let to a more crisp listen.

5. Messa

Before the epic finale of their album, Mur presents another four minute track, Messa (“Mass”). The sound of the track strongly reminds of its predecessor, which is also due to the strong presence of the keytar. Around half time, the track is speeding up, but then rather leans back towards the instrumental sound of the beginning. The song has a very dark and dramatic touch, but does not make me fully happy.

6. Heimsslit

The two last songs of the album have also been released as single already. This is a bit of surprising, as they are also the longest tracks, with over ten minutes each. Heimsslit (“End of the World”) even just hits the eleven minutes mark. It was also the first single released from the album, coming with an impressing music video. The song seems to be slowly marching in, using guitar and synth sounds. There are vocals, but they overall play a subordinate role in this song. Nonetheless, it is a really impressing and catching listen – and significantly better as a YouTube video than on Spotify.

7. Holskefla

Mur closes with Holskefla, which translates to “Hollow Shaft”. The song starts rather slowly, but then is taken over by hammering riffs and corresponding drumming. Again, Mur is putting quite some emphasis on the instrumental sections. Here and there, I feel that having them slightly shorter would even improve the listen – but the chucker-out is definitely an impressing piece of progressive metal art.

 

Mur – Mur – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Mur – Mur – My View

The sound of the Icelandic progressive rock band is impressing and very virtuous. Unfortunately, Mur’s debut album is a bit of lengthy here and there, which does take away a bit of the fascination of their sound. Nonetheless, there feels being a lot of potential in this act – look forward to upcoming releases.

Favorite Song: Heimsslit

 

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