HARDWARES

There was always something special about Madder Mortem; something inexplicably hard to pin down and define, something unsettling and otherworldly but still undeniably inviting and laden with laudable, humane charisma. How galling it has been to see so many other more easily marketed female-fronted bands do better business, few of whom have anywhere near the musical ingenuity or dramatic thrust that the Norwegians have displayed from day one. For fans of the band, Eight Ways is just the latest in a series of phenomenal records that somehow defy rational analysis via a mixture of intense originality, an idiosyncratic approach to songwriting and the incredible vocal talents of Agnete M. Kirkevaag, whose formidable talent has been overlooked for far too long. For anyone who has never had the pleasure, Eight Ways is as good a starting point as any, not least because it is both the strongest album the band has produced to date and also, in a strange and slightly demented kind of way, their most accessible. That’s not to say that Madder Mortem have bitten the bullet and aimed their skills at the world of catchy tunes and faux-goth melodrama. Far from it. Instead, they’ve injected huge jolting doses of space, atmosphere and spiky, prog-like abstruseness into their sound. The result is some of the most exhausting and emotionally demanding music you’ll hear in 2009, but neither is there a single moment that doesn’t attack the synapses with evangelical zeal. This is music that demands your attention and grips until it can grip no more. The best songs – ‘Formaldehyde’, ‘A Different Kind Of Hell’, ‘Riddle Wants To Be’, ‘The Eighth Wave’ – have an extravagant, near theatrical feel to them, as if Agnete and her colleagues are burdened by so many ideas and sparks of momentous expression that the simple welding together of riffs, rhythms and voice is no longer a powerful or sturdy enough vehicle to cope with the weight. Even on less purposefully grotesque songs like the mischievous schlock of ‘Get That Monster Out Of Here’, Madder Mortem sound like no one else and nothing you’ve ever encountered. Why can’t more bands be this adventurous? Maybe the answer is hidden somewhere on this remarkable, life-affirming record. Either way, it’s well worth losing yourself in its labyrinth of dark delights. You may never leave.