Marduk "Memento Mori" Cassette

I'm a huge fan of the Mortuus era Marduk. although their previous albums were not at all bad, they were not offering anything which we haven't heard before. Starting with Plague Angel, Marduk started to started to add more atmosphere and dare I say an artistic tone in their music and I think that's all due to the involvement of Mortuus, which shouldn't be surprise to anyone who is familiar with his solo project Funeral Mist.
Although Plague Angel retained echoes of Marduk's earlier sound, it was with Rom 5:12 and onwards that we witnessed the emergence of fresh facets in Marduk's musical tapestry. Marduk didn't abandon the traditional black metal framework (unlike the radical shift seen in Darkthrone). Instead, they gradually embraced atmospheric nuances in their compositions. For those familiar with their discography, tracks like Imago Mortis, Accuser/Opposer, Unclosing the Curse, Prochorovka: Blood and Sunflowers, Temple of Decay, Nebelwerfer, Silent Night, and many others exemplify these developments. These songs diverge from conventional down-tempo or doom&gloom-infused black metal, opting for a harmonious blend of ruined-gothic-cathedral aesthetics and incorporating experimental elements like chants, church bells, and hissing vocals. While these changes may not seem all that new to traditional black metal enthusiasts, witnessing Marduk's musical evolution through these incremental shifts, culminating in Memento Mori, is truly a gratifying experience.
In terms of the overall production of the album, while they maintain the chaotic, raw, guitars filled with distortion sound, every instrument is perfectly clear and distinguishable. Bass being the scapegoat for most black metal bands, leaving its place for heavy distortion, blast-beats and overall a chaotic salad of a sound, in Memento Mori the literal "tractor engine" bass sound makes itself heard from the very beginning of the album until the end.
Just like the songs mentioned above, Memento Mori is peppered with intricacies, such as the use of horns in the songs Blood of the Funeral and Red Tree of Blood, the eerie intro in the Year of the Maggot with guitars seem to be played from a distance and the subtle alteration in the drum tone in As We Are. The use of horns in particular may not seem as a favourable idea on paper, but a band like Marduk with the genius of Mortuus easily pulled this off. (Another experiment like this was done by Taake with the use of a banjo in Myr which is another atmospheric apex in black metal.) Overall it's still a classic black metal album, in that it starts and goes strong until the end and finishes adequately. The only slowdowns occur in Shovel Beats Sceptre and the closing track, As We Are, the latter serving as a fittingly somber ending to an album centered around death.
While Serpent Sermon is (was) my favourite Mortuus era album of Marduk, they have set the bar to another dimension with Memento Mori. Already can't wait for the next one.

Latest album from the Swedish black metal veterans MARDUK on limited music cassette.
MC limited to 500 white tapes, 5 panel J-card.

Official promo video: 

Official promo video: