If Scandinavian noir had a post-apocalyptic soundtrack, it would sound like Monograf. On their upcoming second full-length album, “Occultation,” the Norwegian collective conjures a soundscape that draws on the brooding intensity of Saor and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, while threading through the haunting melancholy of Scandinavian Folk instruments like the nykkelharpa and fiddle. The result is music that feels as vast and desolate as the Nordic landscape itself, dark, cinematic, and hauntingly beautiful.
Watch the official lyric videwo for the track “The Prophet” via the YouTube player below:
At the center of Monograf is composer Erik Aanonsen, whose unique background shapes the band’s singular sound. With roots in the Black Metal underground as a former member of Antestor, collaborations with acclaimed Norwegian Folk singer Pål Moddi, and a degree in film scoring, Aanonsen brings a rare breadth of vision that straddles heaviness, melancholy, and cinematic drama.
Though steeped in the sorrow and desperation often tied to metal, Monograf refuses to remain within the confines of a single genre. Occultation is the unpredictable outcome from the collision of metal roots and Scandinavian Folk melancholy, forged into a sound that is unmistakably their own.
The album was mixed by Rhys Marsh at Autumnsongs Recording Studio, and mastered by Jeff Mortimer at JM Studios in London, ensuring every layer of distortion, melody, and despair echoes with stark clarity and gravity. On stage, Monograf has already proven their intensity with performances at Brainstorm Festival (NL) and as support for Faroese Doom collective Hamferd, and they remain available for further live shows.
With “Occultation,” Monograf reflect the darkness of our times, a sound neither strictly post-rock, metal, nor folk, but something unsettlingly alive in the space between.
Purchase “The Prophet” on Bandcamp: https://monograf.bandcamp.com/track/the-prophet