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.
Did you set out to make a faster and angrier album than Rom 5:12? Wormwood seems to move with much more force and many of the songs are shorter than the last album.
We never sit down and have an agenda with music. We just let the creativity flow and take us where it takes us. We take a lot of time to make sure the music and lyrics reflect each other. Maybe it was natural to have a rougher, more aggressive sound this time.
What direction did you want the music to head when you started writing the material for Wormwood?
I don’t sit down and plan how it should be. Sometimes I’ll have a title in my head and I’ll make a song. Or, I’ll have a riff in my head and it comes naturally. I just let it loose and let the dark energy take me wherever it goes.
Rom 5:12 was viewed as a concept album whereas Wormwood is a more pared down-straightforward release. Did you want this album and the songs to be more direct?
It’s a more basic album. It’s rougher. There are a few samples, but other than that it’s guitar, drums and vocals. It was recorded kind of primitively in our bass player’s studio. But it really reflects the spirit of the material.
What is the spirit of the material?
It’s sour, it’s bitter. It deals with divine punishment and cruel bitterness.
Marduk’s history is intertwined strongly with the history of second wave of black metal and you’ve been playing since the early 90s. Where do you see the black metal scene in general these days and what is Marduk’s place in it?
I don’t care about belonging in a scene; what matters is what we are doing. In some ways I think the black metal scene is stronger. In other ways I think it’s weak – because you get a lot of followers weakening (the scene). At the same time there are a handful of bands that really carry the banner.
What does Marduk’s banner represent?
Blood, fire and death.
What do you make of the renewed attention to the Swedish metal scene in general, both black and death metal? Daniel Ekeroth wrote an entire book last year based just on Swedish death metal.
I don’t know what to think and really haven’t reflected about it. We once had a lot of classical death metal bands and some of them are still doing good things. When it comes to black metal we had one of the strongest scenes and Europe and still have it. In Sweden, more or less everyone seems to be in a band.
What was it like when you were beginning?
There weren’t that many bands but the death metal scene was very big. We were doing something that was different and more extreme. It was a handful of people you knew, the same with Scandinavia and Norway. Everyone was writing letters to each other. It was a small scene with very good brotherhood that exploded.
Considering that your song “Untrodden Paths” was included on the the famous Nordic Metal tribute compilation for Euronymous, how do you feel about Varg Vikernes being released from prison this year?
It was a dispute between them and it wasn’t part of my business. Of course, it was a big thing when it happened. But he was released and that’s the way the system works in Scandinavia. I don’t really care at all. I haven’t even sat down and thought about it. I’m fully occupied with my own business.
