One of the first black metal bands to crawl out of the woodwork in Norway, cult black metal act Mortem return with new album Mørketid on 3rd July via Peaceville.
Combining brooding, mid-paced monumental riffs with bursts of hyperspeed black metal, the album marks a clear progression from their 2019 debut Ravnsvart, across eight tracks of savage, eerie and often epic black metal.
Out now is ‘Skyggeånd’, the first single from the new album, with a lyric video created by Matthew Vickerstaff that you can watch below.
Speaking on the inspiration behind the track, frontman Marius Vold said: “The lyrics are based on a nightmare I experienced so strongly that the feeling stuck with me for a long time.
“In the dream, I had to save my son from this spirit that stood and swayed waiting in a basement passage under the twilight darkness of the night. A figure in a fluttering jet-black cloak, without a face and his head kind of tilting to the side, sort of listening. It hovered standing, completely still in the same place without a sound, only in anticipation. Tense like a spider, with an invisible web of fear and horror.
“The thought that struck me in retrospect is, if this had been a true scenario, I would never have been able to stand against the blinding fear that gagged me in the dream. Not even the love for my son was strong enough for that frost of fear.
“It is about the paralysing horror of being approached by a spirit who wants to take you down into perdition and be swallowed up by the shadow world of death.
“The losing battle against the power of darkness, where you lose yourself and slowly become a part of it, withered skin, hollow and fragile and thin, slipping between the shadows. You have become an eternal servant of the night, for none of the worldly values will you know, ever again.”
Available on limited oxblood red vinyl, classic black vinyl and a CD edition with a 12-page printed booklet, the tracks featured on Mørketid are ‘Mørketid’, ‘The Mighty Odious’, ‘Skyggeånd’, ‘Blodvassen Grunn’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Den Sanne Gud’, ‘Mørkets Ormebol’ and ‘Ditt Odes Are’. It can be ordered here.
