Marduk “Memento Mori”

    Swedish black metal titans, Marduk, continue to prove to the extreme metal world that they are one of the most vicious and unforgiving acts around with the release of their fifteenth full-length studio album, “Memento More.” Formed in 1990, Marduk has become one of the most influential and fearsome extreme metal bands around. From the early years where the band unleashed nightmarish raw sounding black metal on albums like, "Dark Endless" and "Those of the Unlight," to when they released one of the most intense and destructive albums ever recorded, “Panzer Division,” Marduk’s dedication to recording such hellacious releases is something that I believe deserves to be acknowledged. 

    It has been close to five years since Marduk released their last full-length album, “Viktoria,” which in my opinion was a solid album that demonstrated how skilled this band is at writing blistering black metal riffs, as well as dealing out some decimating blast beats. After waiting five years, I do think expectations for this new album were high and in the end Marduk delivered another strong extreme metal release. The tone of this album is a bit darker and the slower riffs sections on some tracks create a very morbid and bone chilling musical environment which was not something that the band emphasized as much of the previous couple full-length releases. I thought this album did a great job balancing the different types of riff structures, while still unleashing those deafening blitzkrieg like black metal riffs.

    The opening of the album instantly had me hooked and I liked how the band slowly built up the arrangement to create a very suspenseful sounding landscape. Morgan Håkansson’s sinister guitar tone rips through the sickening chaos, while the vocals provided by singer Mortuus paint a gruesome tale to compliment the hateful sounding riffs. Also, the feverish drum parts do a solid job maintaining the tempo and adding to the apocalyptic noises from the other instruments. The second track, “Heart of the Funeral,” is a strong piece of savage black metal, which is very reminiscent to what one would expect to hear from Marduk. On the third track, “Blood of the Funeral,” I thought the band really turned up the intensity, especially pertaining to some of the guitar leads Morgan thew into the recording to inject an extra boost of raw ferocity. Everything just really comes together on the song and this is something which continues throughout the rest of the album where the band sounds extremely tight as they deliver more catastrophic black metal music. 

    My favorite song off of the album is, “Shovel Beats Sceptre,” because the start of the track is just Mortuus growling out the lyrics while a bell eerily tolls in the background. Eventually the other instruments come feverishly crashing into the composition to unleash a very doom like sounding piece of music. Personally, I really enjoyed the slower more mid-tempo riffs on the album, because they do a great job drawing you into this brutally hypotonic sinister sounding realm. Other tracks such as, “Marching Bones” and “Year of the Maggot,” keep the black metal assault moving forward by hammering out more soul crushing riffs and ruthless sounding drum parts. Until the very end of the album you are unable to tear away from the sheer frantic insanity, which I attribute to the profoundly fiendish guitar playing. 

In the end, Marduk’s “Memento More,” is an album that I would highly recommend if you are a fan of black metal and want to hear something that is not poorly produced unlike some of the modern metal releases you might come across. Marduk has proven time after time to be one the most highly respect black metal acts around, which I would definitely credit to the band’s consistent and sinister creative mindset. Now, does this album stack up to some of their highly praised past releases? I think that is a tough call, and it will ultimately depend on your personal preferences. In my opinion, this album is a strong offering and one of the best black metal releases of this year that once again establishes Marduk as one the most malevolent forces within the global black metal community. 

Check out the song "Shovel Beats Sceptre" :

Marduk Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/Mardukofficial/

Century Media Website :

https://centurymedia.store/dept/marduk

Antifa Strikes Again: Marduk's Show in Oakland Shutdown

  When I wake up in the morning, I wake up with the hope that black metal bands can play concerts without having to worry about dealing with Antifa, or any other extremist group who thinks they are fighting for some supposed glorious cause. Unfortunately, I wake up and see that once again these ignorant humanoids have forced the cancellation of yet another black metal concert based off of bogus claims.

  Marduk was supposed to play in Oakland, CA at the Oakland Metro Saturday February, 18th along with Incantation and Svart Crown. However, due to safety concerns the show was canceled. The Metro issued a statement explaining the reason for the cancellation and stated how they were informed by the Oakland Police that canceling the show would be highly recommended, especially after what happened in Berkeley with the Milo event. I won’t blame the Metro for the cancellation, as they were making a decision based off of a recommendation from the Oakland Police Department. Also, I would not want the Metro to be besieged like the University of Berkeley campus. I know people who work at the Metro and I would not want their place of business being potentially destroyed.

  As it should come as no surprise, Antifa is the main driving force behind this cancellation and the group who deserves all the blame. The group Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area posted a bogus list of reasons why the Marduk should not be allowed to play on their Facebook Page. The post I believe has been taken down, but for the most part they claim Marduk is a black metal band with, “known white supremacist ties from Sweden that profits off of glorifying Nazi imagery and songs about Nazi SS officers and anti-semitism” (Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area).

  Overall, they used really weak evidence to make the case that Marduk is a white supremacist band that promotes Nazism. If anyone took the time to actually look at the band’s history and past interviews, they would find that Marduk has never advocated for the mass genocide of any race. Marduk’s lyrical themes deal with World War Two, so there have been songs written about Nazis, because...Nazis were involved in World War Two! Writing songs about the history of the Third Reich is not enough evidence to justify the claim that these guys go around glorifying Nazism. I think certain people forget World War Two history is a fascinating subject and can be explored further in extreme music. I mean, Slayer’s, “Angel of Death,” is not advocating for another Holocaust. Should Antifa call for the cancellation of Slayer shows since Slayer writes songs referencing Nazi history?

  Another point I saw brought up against Marduk is that their guitarist Morgan "Evil" Steinmeyer Håkansson knew Varg Vikernes back in the day. Since Varg has made some anti-semitic remarks in the past that means by association that Morgan “Evil” is anti-semitic. Yes, in their sick and twisted minds having past association with someone automatically makes you connected to that person’s exact ideology. Seriously, I can’t understand their logic and will just leave it at that!

  At the end of the day I can only repeat to everyone that Antifa is creating a fascist environment based off of extremely weak claims. What world do we live in where people can go around using fear and lies as a tool to silence people? Where have we seen this before? Nazi Germany? Well, to those Anti-Fascists who are celebrating the cancellation of the Marduk show, congratulations as you are now on the path to actual fascism...you hypocrites. One day hopefully more people will see them for who they really are... One day we might be able to go to our black metal concerts without the fear of them being canceled... One day...



Here is an article from Metal Injection that gives some good info on what happened and also served as a basis for my rant. It also contains the statements by the Oakland Metro and Oakland Police:

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/marduks-show-in-oakland-got-cancelled-because-people-think-theyre-nazis-were-pretty-sure-theyre-not