Madder Mortem – “Deadlands” (2002)

Label : Peaceville Records

Review By Tony Cannella

Norway’s Madder Mortem originally released the “Deadlands” album in 2002 via the Century Media Records label, if I’m not mistaken. This was the bands third full-length release and they have recently re-issued the CD with a two exclusive bonus tracks. For fans who are just now latching on to the band via their excellent 2009 release “Eight Ways”, this is a perfect opportunity to go back and hear some of the earlier works from this cool atmospheric, progressive, dark metal band. One thing that is pretty cool about Madder Mortem is the fact that they have always managed to incorporate modern metal elements with a progressive metal style and the atmospheric vocals of Agnete M. Kirkevaag are quite unique and fits the band well. The opening intro “Enter” leads into the brilliant “Necropol It”, which is probably one of the better songs on this CD, but there is plenty of good material to keep fans satisfied, such as “Omnivore”, “Rust Cleaning” and “Distance Will Save Us”. The 60-minute CD contains it’s share of longer, progressive-like numbers with the best of the lot being the 10-minute “Resonatine”. Just a cool track, that shows off the complexity that the band is capable of. For fans who already own the original version of “Deadlands”, there are two brand-new bonus tracks: “The Exile” and “Deadlands Revisited”.“Deadlands” is a solid release, that newer fans who may have missed it the first time around should check out. This re-issue, has some nice packaging and liner notes written by Agnete, recounting how “Deadlands” originally came about – it certainly makes for some interesting reading. Madder Mortem are always a band that have released high quality music and it is obvious that they were doing that as far back as 2002 with “Deadlands” and that continues to this day.

Tracklist

1. Enter
2. Necropol It
3. Omnivore
4. Rust Cleanin
5. Faceless
6. Distance Will Save Us
7. Silverspine
8. Jigsaw (The Pattern and the Puzzle)
9. Deadlands
10. Resonatine
11. The Exile (Bonus Track)
12. Deadlands Revisited (Bonus Track)

Line Up 

• Agnete M. Kirkevaag – Vocals
• Eirik Ulvo Langnes – Guitars
• BP. M. Kirkevaag – Guitars, Voice & Percussion
• Paul Mozart Bjorke – Bass, Vocals & Percussion
• Mads Solas – Drums

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