Bandcamp Mörkekraft describe themselves as a depressed Thin Lizzy, which is a great line and only half the story. Fragments, the debut from this Norwegian trio out of Farsund, has the earthy, riff-first heart of a stoner rock record, but it keeps reaching for the widescreen gloss of modern alternative metal, big clean choruses, polished builds, the loud-everywhere sheen of a record made to fill a room. The two impulses do not always sit easily together, and where each song lands on that line is what decides it.
It is best when it trusts the riff and lets go of the polish. “Kaleidoscope” is the highlight by a distance, an earthy, fuzzed-out stoner-doom roll with a real growling bass and a long jam-like outro that actually breathes, the one track that sounds like a band in a room rather than a mix on a screen. “Follow the Spiders” opens the album in similar spirit, honest and dynamic, building through a melodic bassline instead of just getting louder. And the closer “Ghosts” pulls off the trick the rest of the record reaches for, a transparent, dynamic song that swells without flattening.
The stretch in between is where Fragments wears thin. Tracks like “Shine Your Light”, “Godspeed” and “Virgil” chase the big chorus straight into a brickwall master, the drums turning triggered and sterile, the clean vocals stranded high and dry on top of the mix, the dynamics pressed flat exactly where the song wants to lift. The melodies are competent and the singing is genuinely strong, but the loudness-first production sands off the grit that makes the band interesting in the first place. There is a rawer, better record hiding inside this one.
As a debut it shows a band with two good instincts and a decision still to make. Lean into the earthy, jamming side that powers “Kaleidoscope” and Mörkekraft could be something special. For now, Fragments is a likeable, uneven first step, best heard loud enough to enjoy the riffs and forgiving enough to skip past the gloss.
Fragments sits between earthy stoner rock and polished modern alternative metal, and the production splits the same way. At its best it breathes: “Kaleidoscope” is all organic fuzz, growling bass and a loose jam-like outro with no brickwall crushing, and “Follow the Spiders” and the closer “Ghosts” hold real dynamic range with clean, present vocals. The middle of the record is the weak stretch, loud-everywhere masters that trigger the drums sterile, strand the clean vocals high on top of the mix, and flatten the choruses exactly where they should hit hardest, with the bass blurring into the low mids. Strong singing and competent melodies throughout, undercut by a loudness-first mix on too many tracks.
Standout tracks: Kaleidoscope, Follow the Spiders
