During 1992/93 the original members of Mörk Gryning, Goth Gorgon and Draakh Kimera had been playing together in different constallations, making songs of their own, jamming covers etc. At the end of 1993 they recorded a Black Metal song "When moonshine is the only light", and decided to form a Black Metal project.
During spring '94 they were working on songs which resulted in a two track demo which was released during the summer. It consisted the songs "Journey through eternity" (On the debut album "Tusen år har gått", "Journey"), and "En visa om döden" (eng: A tale of death) (On "Tusen..": "Min sista färd", eng: My last journey). Emmediately they were contracted to No Fashion Records.
What at first had only been a small project, soon turned into serious business.
However, they never abandoned their original bands, and still saw Mörk Gryning only as a project. Songs were written and in May 1995 they entered Dan Swanö's (Edge of Sanity) studio, Unisound, to record "Tusen år har gått". During five days they recorded and mixed the debut album.
Goth Gorgon says upon this: "The recording was very "Punk"! The bass and drums were recorded live, almost all vocals were done in first take and everything worked without interruptions". Music wise, it was melodic Black Metal with influences of old Heavy Metal. What was entierly new, was that some of the lyrics were in Swedish, something that no Black Metal band had done before that, and the lyrics themselves were very special. It's a concept album and all text is written together in one piece, not song by song. The album was very well recieved in the underground, and Mörk Gryning became something mysterious. Nobody knew who the members were at first, and rumours were born.
At this time the Black Metal scene in Sweden was very "infected", and constant discussions were going on, about which bands were true and which were not. Naturally, the identity of the two members were impossible to conceal in this climate, and what annoyed a lot of people was that the members of Mörk Gryning were quite young. People who had never spoken or had any contact with the band soon were making hostile statements that this band was not true and did not play "real" Black Metal etc. Not even Black Metal could escape the sin of jealousy.
The band members did not silently accept this and made some harsh statements themselves, which made the wheel continue spinning. And the records continue selling. All this filled the soul of Mörk Gryning with aggression and rage which had to be released.
In November 1996 they entered Sunlight Studios to record one of the most brutal and aggressive Black Metal releases up to date, "Return Fire". In contrast to the melodic and rather polished metal, performed on the debut, "Return Fire" was a total massacre. The sound was utterly raw and the lyrics were more brutal then those of any other band, still the significant melodies, which had been presented on "Tusen.." were still there. Mörk Gryning gained many new listeners with this album, who might have thought "Tusen.." wasn't brutal enough. However they also lost many fans, who cheerished the more melodic music of the debut.
It is not possible to write a complete biography about Mörk Gryning, without mentioning the members other bands.
Although most people only are aware of Mörk Gryning, in the members "normal day-life", very little thought was spent on Mörk Gryning. Draakh Kimera was, and still is, involved in Eternal Oath and Hypocrite. Goth Gorgon's main band at this time was Mortifer, and seconed after that Wyvern. So after the release of "Return Fire", the members simply spent time recording demos and albums with these other bands. In 1999, Kimera joined Wyvern on drums, and in February/March they recorded the second album "No defiance of Fate", in Studio Fredman, Gothenburg.
In the car back home to Stockholm, Goth asked Kimera if it wasn't time for a new Mörk Gryning album, now when this were over with. He also presented the idea of bringing the guitarist Avatar into the band. Avatar was the guitarist of Mortifer, so Goth knew him very well, both as person and as musician. Kimera also knew him and agreed on this. Preparations for a new album was made.
Studio Grieghallen (Mayhem, Emperor, Burzum, Immortal), was chosen and material was written. In November 2000 Mörk Gryning started the recording of Maelstrom Chaos. The collaboration with Pytten worked perfectly. What at first had been intented as a fast, "punk" recording, similar to that of "Tusen..", soon turned out to be a dinasour. Days were added in the studio and lots of additional recordings were made in Stockholm.
Finally, in November 2001, a year after the beginning of recording, the album was ready for release. The album gained very good reviews in all press, and the fans of "Tusen år har gått" were pleased with the music, which they felt was more in the vein of "Tusen" than of "Return fire". But also the fans of "Return fire" appreciated "Maelstrom chaos" a lot, because, although it is not as raw as the predecessor, it is sometimes more brutal then Mörk Gryning has ever been.
After the recording of "Malestrom chaos", Goth and Avatar decided to put Mortifer down. Also the decision was made to make Mörk Gryning a "real" band, which practically means that the band started playing live.
The first gig to be made (They had done one in '96 as well, during the recording of "Return fire"), was at the Hell on Earth festival in Austria, summer of 2001.
The line up was as follows:
Draakh Kimera: Guitar and vocals Goth Gorgon: Bass and vocals Avatar: Lead Guitar Dennis Ekdahl: Drums Henrik Hedberg: Keyboards
Since Dennis was (and still are) the drummer of Raise Hell, Mörk Gryning was still searching for a more permanent drummer. And Henrik is normally a guitarist and had no intention of changing that, so a new keyboard player was needed.
After numorous of different constallations, there seemed to be a steady one in the beginning of 2002: Henrik Åberg (Gates of Ishtar) was handling the drums, Johan Larsson the keyboards, and a session guitarist was added in Stefan Lundgren (Necromicon). Kimera could now concentrate on the vocals only.
This line-up performed however only two gigs together, when Avatar left the band in February. The reasons were many, but most of all he had lost his motivation to play this kind of music. There were no hard feelings and the line-up continued. Kimera simply had to handle the guitar again. This line-up has stayed until now, with lots of gigs behind. The most spectacular one was that at Wacken this summer (02), were Mörk Gryning completely filled out the Wet Stage, although Cannibal Corpse was playing at the same time.
Right now the band is working on material for the next album. Johan Larsson, keyboard player, has joined as a full member and are taking part in the song writing.
The music of the next album are promised to be something very special. As Goth Gorgon puts it:
"On Maelstrom Chaos we plunged into chaos. Now we have reached beyond and are opening doors to unknown territory. Our next album will be a full-fledged journey through the inner emotions of man. The Horror, and the Beauty, is all part of our all combined sub-conscious".
[Stockholm, October 2002]
Source: http://www.mork-gryning.com/