Norway’s Dim Gray are a strange bunch of musical misfits. With their various and contrasting roots in diverse genres such as black metal, prog rock, blues, folk and film scores, this collective really shouldn’t function at all. Yet, Dim Gray are living proof that something very magical can happen when certain musicians join forces. The band have received critical-acclaim thanks to two solid albums which culminated in shows with heavyweights Marillion and Big Big Train. Album number three is titled Shards and is sure to shoot Dim Gray to the next level and gain some global attention.
Individually, Dim Gray had been making music long before their debut album (2020’s Flown) hit the streets and that musical pedigree immediately becomes obvious on opening track ‘Defiance’. The band don’t feel the need to make a dramatic entrance and scrawl their sound on every surface, rather this is a more thoughtful and dignified arrival and ‘Defiance’ slowly opens like a lotus flowers and gradually displays its charms to the world. The instrumentation here reminds me of that found on early Kate Bush records; it’s otherworldly and wraps the listener in a fuzzy ball of Novocaine. A soothing balm sent to soothe our trouble times, ‘Defiance’ (like the whole album) has a strong focus of song structure and is driven forwards by an insanely catchy melody and it’s one that will haunt the listener long after the song has stopped spinning.
To those unfamiliar with the work of Dim Gray, the band’s location and moniker might give the impression of a band who dabble in Scandinavian darkness, and while that’s true to an extent, in truth the band are much more multifaceted. There’s folky flourishes on ‘Murals’, a vast and expansive production found on the Radiohead-esque ‘Feathers’ and the multicoloured ‘Peril’. Shards paints its sound from a wide palette and it glistens like an icicle in winter sun. However, dig beneath the surface and you will find themes of melancholy and loneliness and songs that question the very essence of life. Like all good art it can be enjoyed on two levels; it’s perfectly feasible to enjoy the 10-minute ‘Attakulla’ for what it is (a great, great song), yet it will also reward deep excavation and as with Pandora’s Box, the deeper you dig, the more will be revealed.
As the more established bands shuffle off towards the great gig in the sky it is time for a new breed to take their place and Dim Gray suggest the future is going to be very, very bright.
- Shards is released on 28th February 2025 (available here).
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Track List:
- Defiance
- Myopia
- Murals
- Feathers
- Mooneater
- Peril
- Little One
- Shards From A Broken Crown
- Attakulla
