“Trained ears will know they’re standing before a simply great record.”
Sweden’s Tårfödd charge back with Mörker Täcker Livets Ljus, the band’s sixth album in a very prolific, short, yet firm career. Simon Lindgren, the man behind everything Tårfödd, has been shaping the project’s sound for a few years now, but with Mörker Täcker Livets Ljus he reaches a higher level of quality and maturity yet unseen in the band. Forget masks, drama, shock value, theatrics, and all the clichés that have been stripping the genre of what it held most valuable — honesty. Tårfödd feeds on it and doesn’t let go for a second.
Running for over seven and a half minutes, “Skies Collapse in Ashen Grey” is a bold way to start a record, but never a risky move, since this is quintessential black metal. It’s interesting to see that Simon is not afraid to start with a song so strong that it leads us to think it’s either a trick to get your full attention or a sign that the best is yet to come. While it succeeds in grabbing your attention, it fortunately is just the beginning, even if it’s one of the album’s finest moments. There’s no rush, no thunderstorm, but a perfect balance of heartfelt, layered emotion. The song comes to life, prospers inside our ears, and then stubbornly refuses to give way to the next songs. There are also a great deal of epic moments, which give a much-needed three-dimensional facet to Tårfödd. Our favorite tracks certainly are “Nothing Announces Change” and “Mörker Täcker Livets Ljus,” as they are nothing short of majestic. The first sees Simon make perfect use of a sweet acoustic sound, while the other verges more on repetitive, hypnotic moments.
Mörker Täcker Livets Ljus is full of details, like guest vocals by Revenant on several tracks, which help add more layers and dynamics that pull the album further away from the light. Then again, Johanna’s appearance on the title track is a contrast that fits perfectly with the album’s themes of loss and fading light. These guests never overshadow Lindgren in any sense, but rather enhance his emotional work. However, what really makes Mörker Täcker Livets Ljus stand out is its sincerity. There’s no gimmick here, no attempt to reinvent black metal or dress it up. Instead, Lindgren leans into a profound atmosphere, melancholy, and emotional nakedness to reverberate and translate his train of thought into the sound waves we end up hearing. This is not even a grower, as trained ears will know they’re standing before a simply great record.
By the time the closing track, “Ett Sista Farväl,” fades out, it feels like the end of a long, cold walk through someone else’s life. And that’s the strength of this record: it pulls you into its world and keeps you there. The production is excellent; clear enough to let the melodies breathe, but still cold and raw in the right places. Nothing feels over-polished, yet nothing is buried. It’s the sweet spot many DSBM and atmospheric black metal bands aim for but rarely hit. Mörker Täcker Livets Ljus leans heavily into depressive black metal, but with a strong ambient backbone that gives it a sense of space and depth. At times, the atmosphere recalls the drifting, hypnotic qualities of Arckanum but without the edgelord nonsense, and with a far more grounded emotional core. That restraint makes the album feel like black metal shaped by someone who understands the genre’s roots but isn’t trapped by them.
