Mordaehoth "Limburgian Pagan Madness" CD

"Waar bergtrollen voor eeuwig slapen" is a metal version of "Bergtrollets gravferd" from Isengard.

Final album of Mordaehoth, released in winter of 2014-2015. Compilation of tracks from private and unreleased tapes that were only given to friends. Those tapes will remain unreleased forever, but selected tracks have been re-recorded by Sigwyrd for this album. The oldest Dutch pagan black metal show a colder and harsher return to the roots of grim and hateful pagan black metal. LP, CD and MC editions have a different tracklist. Cassette and CD now sold out.

Limburgian Pagan Madness feels like a reflection on a long journey. It is a tribute every bit as much as it is a work of art unto itself. Like countless others, Mordaehoth was a one-man act inspired by the burst of creativity that shook black metal amid the first half of the 1990s. If black metal as a contemporary style has since evolved to favour the experimental and angular, I still don't think the classic sound will ever wear out. Twenty years from now, there will still be a place for bleak demo coldness. Even then, the style's incredibly saturated, and for all of the bands that have released material in the Second Wave image recently, only a small handful seem to really "get it". It's supposed to be imperfect, ugly, adversarial and humourless. Any deviation from the formula risks alienating the desired atmosphere.
Replicating said formula is one thing, but feeling it is quite another. Reading through Mordaehoth mastermind Sigwyrd's lengthy commentary in the booklet of Limburgian Pagan Madness goes to show that he's among those who truly feel the Second Wave sound sincerely. As black metal evolved, he began to isolate himself, and many of the recordings that ultimately became this compilation were shown only to a trusted few. Rest assured, Limburgian Pagan Madness isn't the sort of recording that's going to make waves in any contemporary discourse. This is black metal intended to conjure up those feelings of nostalgia most of us should have for hearing the classics for the first time in our youths. As an unapologetic compilation of demos, I think it does exactly what it set out to do.
This is surprisingly the first I've heard of Mordaehoth, although having checked out some of Sigwyrd's official full-lengths, I can tell this is a significantly rawer product than the sort he's used to putting out. Limburgian Pagan Madness is a raw Second Wave black metal album in every sense of the word. The performance is effectively imperfect. I think there's a fine line drawn between the sterile, the organic, the weak and the sloppy. While there's little more nausea-inducing than digital black metal, I've heard many more demos that sound just as worthless for the fact that the musicians lost their punch through the intentional ugliness of misplayed instruments. With Mordaehoth, I might refer to early Darkthrone in the sense that the perceived sloppiness doesn't belittle the impression that Sigwyrd's otherwise a damned fine musician. The are lots of possible mistakes left in the performance, but these benefit the spontaneous rupture of the recording. Even if a lot of the songwriting here is only functional at best, the pure sound of it is addictive.
What is there really to say about Limburgian Pagan Madness? There are definitely some who will snub their noses at the album cover and try to laugh it off as satire. And they would be missing the point. The Second Wave bands were gloriously imperfect and limited by an adolescent's budget. Even if Sigwyrd is merely paying a tribute to the classics throughout the lo-fi recordings here, he does so in a way that's entirely believable and unironic. Traditional black metal doesn't just belong to the innovators; it's a part of anyone who knows to embrace the dark heart and arrogance that goes with it. Most fall short. Mordaehoth does not.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...