MYNSKH are a black/death metal trio from Vienna in Austria. The main man behind the project is S.A., and his vision is ambitious. The project of MYNSKH is planned as a trilogy of LPs, after which the band is going to be done. Chapter I – Obliterating Perfection is the first piece to this puzzle. The initial material was written all the way back in 2013, recorded around 2016, and then shelved. Now it is back in re-recorded, remixed and remastered glory and ready to be unleashed.
Musically speaking, this is a very interesting piece. The five songs that sum up to 40 minutes in total weave an interesting story, a musical journey. The focus lies with lot of ambient elements, synths and – weirdly enough – cello. The tempo is mostly slow, the sound heavy, the feeling moody. It is theatric, experimental and well paced. The instrumental work is very tasteful. MYNSKH had some guest musicians join in, and while I do not know who contributed what, the end result is very impressive.
The vocal duties are shared between S.A. (otherwise responsible for songwriting/guitars/lyrics/samples/synths) and M. (also responsible for the extremely well done bass). The mostly guttural black metal vocals are sometimes alternated with energetic clean vocals plus the occasional group shout. Mix that with some spoken word passages and a beautiful female guest voice, and you have a very varied soundscape befitting the progressive songwriting. The third man in MYNSKH is G.C., he provides the drums and is in charge of mixing and mastering.
There is lots to love here. This is not a record that thrives on heavy riffing, although there is enough of that on here. Instead, the focus seems to be on the storytelling. Each song has plenty of dynamic ups and downs, breaks, interludes, changes in pace, ambient passages… There is also nothing like a catchy chorus to stick with you, but the journey is a well told epic. And it sounds great too.
During the long production time of Chapter I – Obliterating Perfection, MYNSKH already started writing the material for Chapter II, and have ideas for Chapter III. So I hope we will not have to wait for decades for this whole story to unfold. Judging from the excellent Chapter I, it is a story well worth listening to. Hard recommendation.
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Born in ’88, living in Austria. I play guitar in various Blues / Rock / Metal projects and do my own amateurish music recording & production.
