Published December 16, 2009
Morðingjarnir have been together for nearly five years, which in punk/hardcore terms means that they’re becoming grizzled old warhorses of the scene. And their third album sees them slowly moving away from the core sound of their first two albums. The songs are now on average 1.5 minutes longer, there’s a lot less screaming, and their sound is much more buffed and polished with a big powerpop cherry on top. Is this a bad thing? I guess it depends on what your punk/hardcore references are. If you think the crowning zenith of punk is Green Day, then you´ll go apeshit for it, otherwise you may just go “meh.”
As for me, I found this album really frustrating to listen to. For each track such as the full on Mötorhead thrash of Förum í stríð and the scuzzy romp of Manvísa, there is the derivative Hlakka til að hitta þig and the asine Sunnudagsmorgunn í Reykjavík which has a chorus that I would have expected from Sprengjuhöllin (no no NOOOO!). Perhaps I’m just an old stick in the mud in wanting my punk to be angry and misanthropic instead of being wrapped in Prozac goo…
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