Their latest album Wormwood sees Marduk combining their more experimental music of late with their traditional blastbeat-driven black metal sound. About.com chatted with Håkansson from Sweden recently during a slate of practices preparing for European shows about the meaning of Wormwood; vocalist Mortuus' contributions to the band; the beginning of the black metal scene in Sweden and the release of Varg Vikernes of Burzum from a Norwegian prison.
Justin M. Norton: Is there a concept or a story behind Wormwood?
Morgan Håkansson: The title has nothing to do with drinking absinthe. It comes from the Book of Revelations where it says that the stars fall from heaven to earth and poison one third of the water to make it bitter for humans to drink. And if you translate the word "wormwood" to Russian you get "Chernobyl." You know that was the place of a big nuclear disaster in 1986. A lot of Christians foresaw that as the Book of Revelations taking form and predicted it as the beginning of the end of the world. So, the meaning of this album is a doomsday celebration.
Read the complete Marduk Interview
(photo courtesy Regain Records)
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