lista zespołów Gothic Metal Mortemia Misere Mortem

I doubt someone will fail to link the name of Morten Veland with several works which long ago transformed into superior standard of exquisite achievements in the symphonic metal field. As one of the forefathers of the genre who actually helped bringing in the female vocals and thus to enrich the scene, year by year he successfully applied his easily distinguishable, almost soundtrack-like sound that differs from everything else in this over exhibited musical direction nowadays. That same mastermind, responsible for the golden age of the already classic band Tristania and the brain behind the works of Sirenia, recently brought to live his new side project called Mortemia.

Some people will ask what exactly disparates the full-length debut “Misere Morten” from Morten’s discography up to date. The fundamental difference is that in contrast with the previous albums forged by both guitar and vocal chords of maestro Veland, here the female performance is totally absent. Some time ago he said that he won’t include any female singers in Mortemia in order to draw the line between this project and his current band. In fact, everything which the fans might’ve missed in the ranks of the last several albums of Sirenia found its place in “Misere Mortem” – there’s enough profusion of beautifully played guitar solos and high-voltage harsh vocal lines, combined with mystic choir chants that long ago became Morten’s own trademark. The entire mix is done by him as he is the sole engineer and producer for the first time in his long musical career, which once again emphasizes his skills and creativity.

By an old custom of Mr. Veland, his new opus is built upon exactly nine compositions, each of which raises from the ashes of the brief stops between the songs with the energy of a phoenix, paying tribute to an even more powerful fire spreading from the next one. The album combines a magnificently distributed collaboration between Morten’s growls and the melodious chanting of the four people from the very same French choir with which he worked for nine years already and which is also responsible for the dramatic atmosphere of Sirenia’s music. However, the global mood of “Misere Mortem” goes even further from methodical point of view – the choir sounds more ominous than ever, Morten’s fury and artistic approach literally flows from his most retaining riffs and vocal lines since long ago, while both lyrics and melodies fill the listeners with a sense of suffocating darkness and grief. The same intimate emotionality brings me to the reason behind Morten’s wish to record this album in the first place – every single sound of it is dedicated to the memory of Jan Kenneth Barkved, a close friend and colleague for many years, who worked with him in Elusive, Tristania and Sirenia and who is responsible for many of the richest scales and pieces in the program of the Norwegian composer.

Without subjecting its fans to an unnecessary burden of structural complexity, “Misere Mortem” offers a fairly good amount of excellently designed music for no more than 40 minutes – a continuation sufficient enough for Morten Veland in order to remind us of his masterful abilities with the same titanic vigor which is capable of altering time and which dictates the laws of the symphonic metal genre for decades on the run.