Quite often I am asked who my favourite bands are, to which I find myself stumped. Truth is, I hear that many bands both old and new that my tastes change from one week to the next and after three years a re-evaluation is long overdue (not to self: add to to-do list). I discovered this underrated gem of a band in 2006 with their then current album Desiderata which remained in heavy rotation, well, right until the follow-up Eight Ways popped through the letterbox. After several out-biddings on E-Bay I let out an uncharacteristically girlish squeal when this arrived and immediately grabbed it to review and, long story short, hearing this album has made me realise that any “favourite bands” list would be incomplete without Madder Mortem.

Modern metal gets a fair bit of stick, and certainly when this decade has brought us such awful trends as nu-metal, metalcore, death-core, math…er…you get the point… it’s not hard to see why the mainstream is digging up long-buried corpses from 20 years ago in the form of thrash, glam and NWOBHM. Get a little beneath the surface though and I really have to say if one band makes me proud to have been around in this otherwise shameful decade it’s these Norwegians. This is a band that holds no regard for conventions and burns the pages of all existing rulebooks; not to say they don’t respect what has gone before but to try and pinpoint singular influences is a challenge for us all. The first track proper, ‘Necropol Lit’ crushes us under its sheer weight; the guitars have a stamp of Cavalera in their blunt and uncompromising delivery which only gives you a fraction of the whole picture that is built up over the whole of this piece.

The narrative introduction draws you in and really informs that you’re about to ‘Enter’ a whole other world filled with intrigue. This is tempestuous, wild and unpredictable from start to end, taking on myriad twists and turns and various guises without ever losing focus. ‘Rust Cleansing’ comes in with some jarring, screechy guitars that kind of plays out as a warning over a really thick bass line that suddenly fades out to be replaced by a mellow jazz-like verse which is especially warm and melodious. The bass on this album is really formidable and provides a rock-steady foundation for the rest of the music. At seven minutes long, this serenity doesn’t last and it is constantly counterbalanced by the heavy chorus hook that really jumps out at you, drifting away on a cloud and coming back until it all goes off-kilter and a monstrous wall of sound takes us right to the finish line. ‘Jigsaw’ is equally pieced together with crazy rhythms that clatter and clink along before descending into a bass-ridden mellowness where you can feel things are ticking over just waiting to burst apart and send pieces flying everywhere.

The vocals of Agnette Kirkevaag simply cannot be compared, and words cannot do her justice. At times they wistfully haunt the music as guitars hack through them like on the aforementioned ‘Rust Cleansing’. In parts, there’s an air of fragility to them where you feel the slightest knock could cause it to break, and yet in the same breath she can sound incredibly self-assured, sturdy and fierce. There is no girlish femininity to be found here, but a kind of womanly strength that shows she is not afraid of her true emotions; she can lay on the romance but god help you if you do her wrong! The vocals on ‘Omnivore’ are mesmerising, as she sweeps from fierce yells to sweet whispers, while musically this is as wild and discordant as it comes. There’s something dark and threatening about ‘Faceless’ which is both bone-crushingly heavy yet slow and beguiling. The song is driven along by a brooding bass line, while the guitars have a subtlety that eventually erupts into chaos. The slow, drawn out melody lures you in and then carries you along with ease, leaving a trail of wonder in its passing as it builds and falls like shifting sand, while Agnete’s a-capella warbles provide a point where everything falls into a dramatic silence before picking back up.

‘Distance Will Save Us’ starts off as a progressive oddity, which kind of gives that feeling of distance between the elements though it all comes together and coagulates into a really strong and simplistic (well, by their standards!) rhythm. There’s a Gothic vibe to this one and the verse has a soothing quality and simply brims with darkness, until the chorus tears it all open and the desperation pours out like blood from an open wound. There’s a sludginess that takes over on ‘Silverspine’ while the guitars are, at times, hypnotic.

As this is a re-release you can expect a few little extras; two bonus tracks including a re-recording of ‘Deadlands,’ plus an introduction from Agnette which is certainly cool, though not sure it’s enough to make you want to run out and buy it if you have the original.

This is just a really honest album with no pretensions. Does it have mass appeal? Well, if you’re after a band that conforms to the female-fronted Nightwish clone school of thinking, you can forget this; similarly, you might want to look the other way if you’re after something simple to bang your head to. As much as I think this band is vastly underrated, if conforming to those stereotypes is what is required to get them there then I’m quite happy for them to stay underrated. Perhaps I would say this is more humble than the albums that have followed and also a little more accessible. For me, it doesn’t quite match up to Desiderata although it does come very close. If you are bored with the standard femme-metal currently being churned out and just want something a bit out of the ordinary then this is highly recommended.

http://www.myspace.com/maddermortem

Luci Herbert

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