Band: Madder Mortem
Title: Eight Ways
Label: Peaceville Records
Distribution: Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date: June 2009
Review: CD

Combining ‘regular’ stuff with experimental elements might be inventive and interesting, yet sometimes it isn’t but an exaggerated try to differ from the scene. This Norwegian band is a difficult one. Most Madder Mortem’s former releases balance on the border between both possibilities. And even though Eight Ways is a typical Madder Mortem-release, this time it impresses more, much more. All instrumental and (female) vocal details are well-recorded, while the mix and production carry the songs towards a higher level. The tracks are progressive and filled with lots of tempo-changes and breaks, as before, yet the whole is much more thought-through. At the same time, Eight Ways is the most intense and powerful album to date, the most mature one, and the most convincing one. Prog, Goth and Atmospheric Dark Metal, canalised into a rather unique creation of Post-modernism, that’s what Eight Ways stands for.
Consider it a very open-minded mixture of The Gathering, The Third And The Mortal, Ulver, Noekk, Solefald and Flowing Tears.
Total running time: 64:26 minutes.

80/100

Ivan Tibos.