MH: I don’t know, we never really looked that far to the future. We were young and hungry and wanted to bring forth what we could at that time. The vision has been growing as long as the band has been growing so, probably not at the beginning but later on I realised where I wanted to take the band.

PW: There have been a lot of changes through these years and you are obviously the only founding member. I can imagine it being very difficult having to keep finding new band members, especially as far as vocalists are concerned.

MH: No, not really. I always want to work with people who are hungry and dedicated and have a burning devotion to what we are doing and if it doesn’t work out you have to change to guys who want to step ahead and want to share your vision. I prefer a line up change to working with someone who is not 100% loyal to what we are doing.

PW: What is it that has kept you going personally?

MH: I don’t know. It’s a case of doing what I have done and I let my energy flow. I never really sit down and think about it. I normally have new ideas and let the energy flow and it turns out the way it does. This is what I live for!

PW: What would you say are the main strengths of the current line-up?

MH: I know it’s a clichéd thing to say but I think we have the strongest line-up that we have ever had. You get older and wiser and you work with people that are the core and are really devoted and hungry. Together I think that everybody brings something to the band and putting their energy into it so we feel stronger and I feel stronger too so it is a pleasure to work with this line-up.

PW: Is everyone contributing to the writing of the albums?

MH: Absolutely. Even if all the guys do not write riffs they take part in other ways. The bass player takes part in the arrangements and even the new drummer is writing some of the material as well. Mortuus and I work on the lyrics and everyone is doing their thing so we are working more as a unit then we ever have done before.

PW: Releases are pretty prolific; every one to two years generally for albums. Have you a set way of working and going into the recording studio; have things changed through the years?

MH: We have recorded in a lot of places over the years but now we are in our bass player’s studio in our own home town which makes us really relaxed. We can do things when we are really in the mood to do it without having to travel to another city and start at 9 in the morning or anything. I think that is reflected in the spirit of the recording so it’s good to work that way.

PW: How long was the recording process for ‘Wormwood’ then?

MH: I think we were in the studio for a few months but I would say overall three active weeks in the studio.

PW: Coming onto the new album I immediately thought of Absinthe on seeing the title Wormwood as it is an active ingredient of the potent brew but it is also a star or angel dating back to the Old Testament. It has some very interesting historical interpretations too, tell us a bit about the concept behind this?

MH: It has nothing to do with Absinthe, a lot of people seem to think so. In the book of Revelations it’s the name of the star that falls down to the earth and poisons 1/3 of the waters and that’s kind of the idea behind the whole album. Also if you translate the word Wormwood to Russian you would get the word Chernobyl and when Chernobyl happened a lot of Christian societies around the world thought it was the coming of the end of the world and that’s kind of the theme of the album.

PW: I guess the album cover ties in with this although at first it reminded me of a rotting Knight Templar.

MH: That’s maybe not the right idea but it has to do with rust, the morbidity, the sourness you know. It’s very much the doomsday celebration this album.

PW: I was interested in Mortuus’ vocal performance; he really does make some fantastically ghastly noises.

MH: Yes that’s what I really like about his voice. It’s more like an instrument the way he uses it around the arrangements. It’s such a unique voice and it’s really powerful.

PW: Is it all natural or are any effects used at all?

MH: No we don’t use any specific effects, it’s just an old microphone put into the recording, maybe some delay but no effects as such. As you can hear when we play live, he has the same voice!

PW: I have found the ideas and themes behind Marduk’s albums getting increasingly more interesting in recent years. Gone are the days of the tank….

MH: No, not really gone it’s still an inspiration but we use it in different ways.

PW: Since ‘World Funeral’ things became even darker, looking perhaps towards the apocalypse and end of days. Is this something that generally fascinates….

MH: I think it all started on ‘La Grande Danse Macabre’ but it is something that Mortuus and I work at lyrically and we read more about it.

PW: Personally what do you think, are our days numbered?

MH: Yeah, hope so.

PW: Also on the more recent albums I have noticed a lot of contrast in the way you flow from a fast song to a slower one almost continuously through the running time is this a conscious way of doing things?

MH: Not really. We have never been a band who have sat down and thought we have to do that or things in a certain pattern. We work on the music and lyrics and the thing that is important to us is that they become one and work well together. I have a hard time understanding bands who go into the studio, record the music and then go start work on the lyrics. That would never happen with us as it would not be as powerful and become as part of a unit with the music reflecting the lyrics and the other way around. Sometimes albums are louder, sometimes heavier it is the way it flows and we are the vehicles of creativity so it comes out how it does.

PW: As far as those slow ones are concerned, I could really imagine the likes of ‘Funeral Dawn’ playing as a soundtrack to Nosferatu. Where does inspiration come from and where do you get your ideas?

MH: That specific song is based around one riff, it’s kind of primitive but it goes upwards and up with things flowing around. I am more inspired by whatever I can see a black and white photo, a picture or painting or something that moves me, it’s really hard to say. It’s a case of seeing something that paints a picture in your mind to go with the music I write the soundtrack for the sort of things that I find inspiring.

PW: Some of the track titles are interesting, can you wear a whorecrown as a garment and what is it?

MH: Yes you can! That’s exactly for the person who reads the lyrics to make their own mind up about what it is. Everybody that reads the lyrics will have a different picture painted in their mind.

PW: Apart from themes and pace perhaps maturing with age, Marduk have always stuck to their guns. What do you think of black metal bands such as Mayhem and obviously 1349 taking different paths and evolving their sound?

MH: I don’t know, what kind of different paths are they taking? I really don’t know. I don’t really sit down and reflect on what other bands are doing as I don’t really care what they do, I don’t give two flying fucks. What matters to me is that we do what we want to do and it’s fine, to me, for them to do whatever they want.

PW: The show at Party San was a real triumphant one with the band playing for a really long time and covering a huge array of material. I found it a bit surreal being an Englishman in Germany with the sound of war and tanks trundling away between tracks. Did you consider that this atmosphere might be unsettling to some in a country where many probably lost relatives during the war?

MH: I mean I lost relatives during the war as well. I don’t really care, we do what we do and are inspired to do and if people have a problem with it I don’t care. It’s strange that musicians always get criticised for what they do but if we get criticised we don’t care. The show was fantastic it was a great atmosphere. It was a good thing to do, the tenth anniversary of Panzer Division and we played well so it was a pleasure for us.

PW: You have been playing an extensive tour of Poland, how has that been going?

MH: It’s been going brilliant, we have been going out with the guys from Vader who we have known for many years and we were not sure how well it would work but it has been doing so really well. A lot of people are crazy fanatics and we have been playing these places we would never have played not just the big cities so it has been a great opportunity to play places we would otherwise never have been likely to see.

PW: After this you are heading to the rest of Europe, I notice no UK date this time around and as you have visited a lot in the past I wondered why that was?

MH: We go home for a few days and start rehearsing some new songs and then we go to Europe and after that we go back home and then another 25 dates over in the States. This is the path for 2009, we are getting back on the road in 2010 and I think we are going to be doing a lot of places we have not done this year. So we should be doing Scandinavia, The Balkans and over to the UK. It is important for us to march across as many places as possible; we are road warriors in that perspective and we like to play live in as many places as possible. We also are working on a South American tour for next spring to cover places we have never been there before, even Honduras and places like that. We were one of the first bands to play in Venezuela, El Salvador and Guatemala.

PW: I bet you are glad all the Visa problems with America are sorted that must have been very frustrating.

MH: It was frustrating as it affected us, promoters and fans but it is sorted and we are happy to go back and march across that continent as well.

PW: Any ideas for what comes next album wise?

MH: Obviously we have this touring cycle first but I already have a few tracks in my head and some vocals as well. It will take some time but I don’t think as long as it did between Rom 5:12 and Wormwood. We are eager to get working on it after the tour. This is what devotion is all about, we don’t want to sit around and do nothing.

We want to say hello to all the UK supporters and look forward to seeing you in 2010.

For more on the band check out http://www.marduk.nu
http://www.myspace.com/truemarduk

Interviewed by Pete Woods

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