Amalie Bruun, the mastermind
Myrkur (MIR-k(y)ur, Icelandic for "darkness") is a project founded in 2014 by Danish singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun, described as what Enya or Lana Del Rey would sound like as a Black Metal artist. The project was supposed to be an Anonymous Band but the media were quick to pry after her first release and discovered that Myrkur was really a one-woman band, much to both the fascination and dismay of the genre's Broken Base.
Nonetheless, the project carried on, releasing several singles and two studio albums to critical acclaim, and toured around the world alongside the likes of Behemoth, Epica, and Opeth.
Discography
- Myrkur (2014, demo)
- M (2016)
- Mausoleum (2016, live)
- Mareridt (2017)
- Folkesange (2020)
- Spine (2023)
Tropes:
- Anonymous Band: Subverted from the moment her first ever song "Nattens barn" came out in 2014, as media were in a frenzy to find out the woman behind those ridiculously good Harsh Vocals.
- Blood from the Mouth: The video for "Ulvinde".
- Cover Version: Apart from folk songs, she's covered Bathory's "Song to Hall Up High" in Mausoleum.
- Cultured Badass: Apart from black metal and folk music, Amalie has professed her love
for classical music and "horror pop", among other things. - Deliberately Monochrome: The video for "Juniper". Also Le Film Artistique.
- Face on the Cover: Mareridt, as opposed to just a silhouette in M.
- Folk Metal: The Scandinavian variety.
- Gothic Metal: The likes of "Shadows of Silence" and "Juniper".
- Genre Mashup: Nordic folk mixed with black or sometimes gothic metal and ambient.
- Genre Roulette: Sometimes Black Metal, sometimes dark ambient, sometimes Nordic folk, sometimes dark ambient Nordic folk...
- Gratuitous French: The line je suis votre amour in "Crown".
- Grim Up North: If a woman can singlehandedly embody this trope, it's Myrkur.
- Last Note Nightmare: "Onde Børn". Couple that with the video where you see Amalie beside a burning M.
- Lighter and Softer: Her upcoming album is more focused on her folk side.
- Metal Scream: A hellishly throat-busting but commanding type 3 to boot.
- Multilingual Song: Quite a few songs in Mareridt switch between Danish and English and at one point, French.
- Norse Mythology: Apart from making it obvious in "Skaði", Myrkur loves Nordic fairytales and folklore as well.
- Nature Lover: In spades. Amalie likes to be filmed singing and sometimes playing her instruments in the great outdoors. Justified as according to her interview with Metalsucks, "nature is a big part of the reason Black Metal even exists."
- Norse by Norsewest: She's a Dane with an Icelandic alias who sings in her native tongue as well as Swedish and plays a style of music popularized in Norway, if not the rest of Scandinavia. And her logo is the runic letter M. How much more Nordic can you get?!
- Phenotype Stereotype: Just look at the page image!
- One-Woman Band: Amalie plays guitars, bass, piano, violin, nyckelharpa, just about everything EXCEPT a drum kit.
- One-Woman Wail: Kulning, an ancient Swedish herding call. Most prominent in the Title Track/Album Intro Track to Mareridt.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue against Burzum's red.
- Scenery Porn: Every single location where "Ulvinde" was shot.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Part of her one-woman band shtick.
- Self-Titled Album: Self-titled demo.
- Shaky Cam: "Bonden og Kragen".
- Soprano and Gravel: Amalie contrasts her haunting Metal Scream with a soprano as ethereal as Jónsi's countertenor in Sigur Rós.
- The Stoic: Amalie often looks either tranquil or slightly annoyed.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: She gives off this vibe at certain points in the "Ulvinde" video and, though her face remains visible, the Mareridt album art.
- Two Girls to a Team: Chelsea Wolfe joins Myrkur in "Funeral".
- X Meets Y: The official Myrkur website describes Mareridt as King Diamond's Them marrying Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
