Madder Mortem - Desiderata

Country: Norway      Genre: Doom Metal, Gothic Metal, Progressive Metal

After releasing Deadlands in 2003, Madder Mortem spent six weeks touring Europe with Opeth. Also in 2003, the band’s bass player, Paul Mozart Bjørke, and guitarist Eirik Ulvo Langnes both left the band. After finding replacements, the band switched from Century Media to Peaceville Records and set out to record their next album, Desiderata.

This female-fronted band is not easy to categorize – which was just one of the reasons why I selected Deadlands as my 2003 Album of the Year. If ever there was a band that played metal without rules, it’s Madder Mortem. They’re open, willing to experiment, and seemingly unafraid to try anything. What’s most amazing to me is how successful their experiments are. There truly must be a method to their madness. Another reason I enjoy Madder Mortem’s music is the prominence of the bass guitar. Unlike many bands, the bass is front and center and drives every song.

Desiderata is less doomy – more up-tempo – than Deadlands. Agnete Kirkevaag is still strong and forceful in her vocals, and the music overall is still very heavy and unpredictable. In short, it is still “Epic Goth Metal,” as my TTM colleague Ladd Everitt called Madder Mortem’s music in his review of Deadlands.

Desiderata is again angry and nihilistic – witness the words of vocalist Agnete Kirkevaag’s description of the idea for the song "Cold Stone": “The idea centers, on the physical plane, very much around one single concept: Being buried alive in a body-sized casket of some sort, far underground and bestowed with eternal life. The thought of not having the option of movement, together with the knowledge that above and around you there is miles and miles of cold, passive stone, and there is nothing at all you can do, you can’t even die. It is the perfect imprisonment, limbo for the body and torture for the mind.”

If that’s not metal, what is?

“M For Malice” is easily one of the best songs I’ve heard this year (and that’s saying a lot considering what I’ve heard so far). Desiderata as a whole is an inspired follow-up to an album that took many in the metal community by surprise. Why Deadlands didn’t click with some fans here at TTM is beyond me, but for those that did like it, you won’t be disappointed with Desiderata.

Reviewed by: John Love

The group was formed in 1993 as Mystery Tribe. They recorded the demo Days in Sorrow under that name before Madder Mortem was born with the 1997 MCD Misty Sleep. Misanthropy Records signed the band and released their full-length debut, Mercury, two years later. Unfortunately, Misanthropy soon folded and Madder Mortem was left without a record contract. Compounding the crisis, three of the group’s members then departed. Vocalist Agnete M. Kirkevaag and guitarist B.P. M. Kirkevaag were left to pick up the pieces, and they recruited Eirik Ulvo Langnes (guitars), Pål Mozart Bjørke (bass) and Mads Solås (drums) into the band. The moves worked, and a contract with Century Media was the reward in 2000. After recording a demo with some older material, Mortem released All Flesh is Grass in 2001. The material was noticeably heavier and paved the way for Deadlands. But the band saw change after that album as well, with Bjørke and Langnes exiting. Madder Mortem also made another label change, from Century Media to Peaceville Records, before entering the studio to record Desiderata.

“My name is silence” opens Desiderata with the hum of churning, Katatonia-like guitars. Then Mortem kicks into twisted, belching riffs out of the progressive doom handbook. Dig the wonderful technical bridge at 1:30, with Meshuggah-like guitar exploration by B.P. M. Kirkevaag and Odd Eivind Ebbesen. The grooves are slower, more romantic as “Evasions” starts. Savor the tasteful, pretty guitar work, at least until this one starts to blow up, with Agnete gradually taking flight. “I could give you all I am,” she intones, before screaming “SAY MY NAME” repeatedly like a woman possessed. This is the sound of Grace Jones evolving into a higher life form (or into god, if you prefer). There’s no other female in metal cutting totally loose like Agnete. The band flashes thrash in the heavy as f*** “Plague on this land.” The production on this stuff is perfect. What is the genre? I don’t know. They’re past any form of Goth. I’d call it Technical Doom. Listen for the stunning moment at 2:19 where all the lights come on at once with a colossal riff. Or how about the Demons & Wizards-spawned thrash just after that? “M for malice” is the next in a line of masterpieces. These evil power riffs are just incredible, and as if fate demanded it, death vocals are introduced into the mix. This is Nevermore good—a juggernaut of a track. The swinging tech power riffs of “The flood to come” don’t let up a bit. Listen again to the guitars, the variation in mood and sound—the playing is impeccable. Agnete burns like hellfire again on this track, reaching heights with her voice that are unthinkable. More Nevermore-esque guitar attack on “Changeling,” and bass experimentation by newcomer Tormod Langøien Moseng. Agnete’s moment of clarity on Desiderata comes in a bizarre hook when she screams “CHANGE” so fiercely and savagely that I doubt she could stand after finishing the take in the studio. It’s totally primal—and in 25 years of listening to metal I’ve never heard anything like it. Agnete is the best female vocalist in metal—yes, you heard that exactly right—because she is able and willing to go to emotional and physical lengths that no one else can…or will. What you are getting here is not the processed clone metal that you routinely bitch about, but raw, wart-covered honesty. After this ecstatic climax, a breath is needed, and provided, with the gentle, mournful guitar tones of “Cold stone.” This is trippy s***—very prog/psychedelia-influenced. But the motion is back with the Futurist chop of “Hypnos.” Agnete’s words are morbid: “Ghosts hold no pain/I surrendered years ago/Life has no claim on me/Let me slip quietly beneath.” On the title track, the dissonant jams are both bizarre and brutal. There is so much going on here—thundering bass lines, tasteful leads winding in the background, ethereal harmonies—but you keep getting hit in the face with mountainous riffs and might fail to notice. The song closes with gorgeous, cycling guitar melodies while Agnete eerily chants, “die, die, die, die.” It seems like a natural closer, but one track remains, “Hangman.” It begins on an easy, surprising note, with the band playing gentle, barroom jazz, Solås letting loose a bit on ride and open-tuned toms. I am literally lulled until they explode into raging doom at 3:15. Wow. The lid just came off a kettle. “I will go down/Stay with me/My light is all gone/Stay with me,” Agnete cries, rending her soul, and every flaw in it is bared naked for us to see. This woman is fearless and holds nothing back.

I heard Enslaved’s Ruun for the first time a couple of weeks ago and said to myself that it would be hard for anything to surpass it in 2006. But Desiderata is better. With this release Agnete has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that she is the best female vocalist in metal. One of the better progressive bands in the world, Winds, has noticed. She will sing three songs on their next album and it will be one to watch. A stellar band at the peak of their powers and one of the best (I’m talking top ten along with the other Nords I just mentioned) in the genre.

Reviewed by: Ladd Everitt