Marduk : "Memento Mori"

These guys are like the Motorhead black metal. They churn out album that take little risk, but pleases their fan base because it is one hundred percent what they do. They might not not be the caliber of songwriters Motorhead was, due to the fact the sheer speed and fury they hit their instruments with does not lend it self to things like hooks or melody. Instead you get full throttle with more of a punk feel at times. The problem being is it all begins to sound the same. What worked when the title track that opens the album hits your fresh ears, is different from how that exact same sound it going to work after they try to hit your now ringing ears with that for a second, is you are a little numbed out and it all sounds the same. 

There is more underlying nuance to "Blood of the Funeral" which is impressive as they are playing even faster here. The riffs stand out a little more. The vocals snarl with the same rasp in all the songs so that is not a factor listening to variation. The only time this changes it on moments like the intro to ' Shovel Beats Scepter " and the vocals stand alone, to allow for more room to breath and place of lower tone to be heard without the buzz of guitars that would otherwise drown it out. Without the blasting the demonic exclamations are more effective, but they still drone on from one place. The hyper blast of "Charlatan" marks the turn the album makes into blur of hyper blasting. 

This is my second listen through this album. Upon my first the second half of the album all sounded the same to me.  A closer listen though headphones I can hear the difference in the drumming the newest member Simon Schilling brings to the table with his playing. Morgan is the only original member, which as the guitarist it brings a uniformity to the riffing in that it carries the bands personality , however on a song like "Coffin Carol' it's not enough to bring a dramatic shift to the dynamics, and the only difference is the drumming is faster and more intense to this song. In the last minute  there is a little more ebb and flow, but it feels like too little too late. 

"Marching Bones" starts with the plod of the bas to give some space between this and previous song before they blasts off again. There is more crust and punk flavor to the feral snarl this song is possessed by. There is an ambient intro to "Year of the Maggot" , if not for this the blasting is almost seamless in the song's explosive nature, so it's easy to hear how this might make everything sound the same, though a second listen reveals a punchier thrash feel. "Red Tree of Blood" keeps the blasties even nastier. The vocals have a more vomitted cadence to them. "As We Are" slows things down to more of a "Hell's Bells" type feel in how the chords are picked out. You are waiting for the other boot to drop as if feels far too purposeful for this band that has blasted the gay Jesus out of you. This also makes it perhaps the album's best song. I will give this album an 8, which is better than most of the blasty black metal out there, as they do care about the songs and try to shift things enough, but far from their best album, if you jsut like their raw blasting side then this exercise in anger might appeal to you more.