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| Desiderata | 
 enlarge | Artist: Madder Mortem
Label: Peaceville UK
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $9.91
You Save: $7.07 (42%)
New (17) Used (5) from $6.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 198921
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 801056814425
EAN: 0801056814425
ASIN: B000EGCTFE
Release Date: May 16, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Cd is new and in the wrap. ** Notch (cut-out) on the spline.
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| Tracks:
| • | My Name Is Silence | | • | Evasions | | • | Plague on This Island | | • | Dystopia | | • | M for Malice | | • | The Flood to Come | | • | Changeling | | • | Cold Stone | | • | Hypnos | | • | Sedition | | • | Desiderata | | • | Hangman |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Forget anything else you know May 25, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I used to listen to Lacuna Coil religiously, and thought they they were the premeire goth female-fronted band out there...not even close. Do yourself a favor, and pick up Madder Mortems "Deadlands" album, listen to it 200 times until nothing else comapres, then do yourself the favor of picking up "Desiderta" They both make every other female fronted/doom metal band sound like a joke, and will only ruin the expreience when listening to any other metal album. In a class of their own, ladies and gentleman...BUY MADDER MORTEM!!!!
 Desiderata January 7, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Madder Mortem were, at one point, a gothic metal band with doomy tendencies... and a damn good one. While some semblance of that might still be found on Desiderata if one were to listen hard enough, the band has - for better or worse - sacrificed the whole idea in lieu of a faster, heavier, and more metallic deal. Fortunately, this has mostly worked out in their favor. Massive emphasis has been placed on mood shifts and dynamics, and the songwriting has taken a turn to the progressive end of the spectrum, making for a considerably diverse and satisfying listen.
For those thinking that Madder Mortem have turned to writing 20 minute songs with extended solo jams and synthesizer wars - fear not. Though the presentation has become somewhat more upbeat and the arrangements have gotten more complex, the atmosphere remains quite dark and the band doesn't rely on any kind of instrumental wizardry to impress the listener so much as they employ driving riffs, pounding drums, prominent bass lines, and a magnificent sense of pathos to simply crush the listener underneath waves of pure energy. That isn't to say that there's nothing impressive from an instrumental standpoint here - the playing is quite accomplished, and the drums especially deserve special mention. The guy knows how to keep a song flowing while maintaining an expansive sense of dynamics and changing up the rhythmic backbone enough to keep the mood from stagnating. The guitars are riff-heavy, and the riffs are deep, brooding, and focus more on impact than speed. The production complements all of this incredibly well - the sound is bottom-heavy, warm, and all instruments have plenty of room to breathe.
Stylistically, the album takes various twists and turns between songs, and often within songs... it's rare that the listener ends in quite the same place where he began. The almost punk'ish opener "My Name is Silence"; the vocal-centric and haunting "Dystopia"; the gloomy, at times nightmarish, at times dreamy instability of "Changeling"; the atmospheric darkwave feel of "Cold Stone" which transforms halfway through into a hypnotic tribal anthem; or the rather epic feel of the title track... it's a ride.
Of particular note are the vocals of Agnete Kirkevaag. While she isn't quite endowed with angelic chords the likes of, say, Floor Jansen, she more than makes up for it with sheer emotional power and empathy. Her whispers instill fear and doubt, her screams reek of lunacy, and her soft singing is warm and welcoming. There are several moments where her voice seems to hit a breaking point, and it is these moments that add the most power to the music. More specifically, her performance on the closing track "Hangman", where the listener is given a taste of what's probably one of the most sincere explosions of unbridled emotion I've ever heard out of a vocalist. Intense moment, indeed.
This definitely is not an album to be missed for those who enjoy female-fronted metal.
3rd on my best of 2006 list March 16, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yet another band that refuses to be classified, Madder Mortem is a female fronted group from Norway with the most kick butt female singer in metal today, Agnete Kirkevaag.
Agnete is an alto with a vocal range that cannot belong to anyone who is a mere mortal. Sometimes compared to Grace Slick stylistically, Agnete's ability, range and power surpass the justification for comparison. Unlike the fluffy sopranos present in so many orchestral and gothic metal outfits, Agnete testifies against type with pure raw power, and she does it with style and terrific pitch.
I first fell in love with their 2003 album "Deadlands", and when I initially gave "Desiderata" a spin I didn't like it quite as well. As is usual with my favorite albums however, this one grew on me to such an extent that I now have to say I like it even better than the last one. So much so, that it now has the number 3 spot on my list.
The album begins with the pounding post punk statement "My Name is Silence", which finds Agnete belting it out to some beautiful downtuned and dissonant guitar slams. The chorus of this song has an almost sing-along quality, except for the fact that Agnete jumps an octave in the middle of a line. Leaves us mortals with our "normal" vocal chords feeling very insufficient. She softens it up a bit in the second song "Evasions" a builder that ends with a crashing climax. Agnete illustrates that she is comfortable with pianissimo as well, and demonstrates a beautiful soft alto in "Distopia", dark and moody "Cold Stone", death/goth styled "M for Malice", darkwave ballad "The Flood to Come" as dark guitar rhythms chug away in the background. There are some songs on this album here that riff in an almost nu-metal headbanger style. A good example of this is the intro to the seventh track "Changeling". Fortunately, this is only a small part of the whole, which finds a very eclectic Opeth-like blending of styles within the composition. None of the songs on the album really go where you expect, taking strange twists and turns through dark alleys and unexplored passages. The albums final track "Hangman" is a bluesy waltz that builds into a dissonant cacophony of pounding guitars, with probably the most raw and emotional vocal performance to be found this year, by male OR female vocalist.
The overall sound is dark, atmospheric, gothic, mysterious. The musicians mesh perfectly with each other. The guitars and bass blend beautifully with the sensitively played drums. The Drummer deserves special props for handling transitions and the changing dynamics with such delicacy. Of all the female fronted bands in metal, or even in popular music, this one deserves so much more recognition.
Yes, it's essential October 5, 2007
In an age where the mp3 rules the music scene, songs are purchased as one-offs, where "CD's are so yesterday's news" (a quote from a friend), Desiderata, the new album by the Norwegian band Madder Mortem, serves to prove that there is still such a thing as an "album". From start to finish, this their third album flows with such a natural momentum that, after hearing the album in it's totality, it's impossible to imagine any song as anything but a part of the whole.
It kicks off with the raucous overture "My Name is Silence", and here you get your first blast of Agnete M. Kirkevaag. As soon as you hear her, you know you're in for music unlike anything you've ever heard. THe opening verse is like dueling cannons, Agnete on one side and the pummeling guitars of her brother BP M. Kirkevaag and Odd Eivind Ebbesen on the other. The segs perfectly into the tight hook of "Evasions". Agnete displays her amazing vocal dexterity, modulating from a smooth light croon to a powerful cry that demands respect. "Plague on this land" pushes the tempo up, moving into an almost thrashy sound at times. And when the Plague hits, the Madders make sure we know it.
"Dystopia" allows us to catch our breath for a minute or two before the album drops into the second act with the groovy and slinky "M for Malice". The bounce continues with "The flood to come". Again, Agnete proves that she is one of a kind, equally adept at soothing us with light melodies as at pummelling us with aggression. "Changeling" keeps the tone, modulating between the heavy and the soft, keeping us off balance with the quirky rythm changes and just slightly off-putting harmonies the Madders are so good at, pushing us hard to close the second act.
"Cold stone" opens the third act with a slow, unsettling guitar introduction, building piece by piece into a pulsing, pounding, heavy rythm that raises the hair on your neck. It cuts off abruptly, and we are left with just strange sounds. Where are they taking us? Then "Hypnos" hits, and we are off. We're pushed along by the pounding rythms. Agnete floats with us, singing delicate airs in our ear. This is Madder Mortem at their best, melodies flow into each other, our chests tighten. We have no choice but to close our eyes and feel the trancedence. "Sedition" keeps us up, not cutting us any slack as the riffs keep coming. Then we move into "Desiderata", where we are pushed into the bog of despair. We fade out of consciousness and awaken to the smooth jazz of "Hangman", not knowing where we are. We're unsettled, something isn't right. Then, BAM! the edge, we're falling away, stay with me! Stay with me!
We've experience this heavy metal assault. It's indescribable. It's fantastic.
M is for Malice July 8, 2008
Always on the quest for new music, I recently came across Madder Mortem through a list someone had posted of female-fronted metal/rock bands. I didn't quite know what to expect from DESIDERATA but the samples sounded interesting enough so I decided to give it a try, and I must say ~ at first I was a little let-down by the hype. Like Echoes Of Eternity, their music sounded too one-dimensional to me. I like diversity in my music and what I initially heard was the same riff shredding guitar and drum techniques used over and over again. Many of the songs still blend too much together for my taste but despite all this the songs are definitely growing on me, and Agnete Kirkevaag has a strangely compelling voice unlike anyone I've heard before.
Some tracks are taking longer to sink in but instant favorites for me include "My Name Is Silence" and "M For Malice". There's the perfect amount of growling in this song and is hands-down the catchiest here. I also like the slower ballad, if you will, "Evasions". It's got more of a harmony than most others, possibly making it the most accessible on the album. The only song that truly floored me, though, was "Cold Stone". My socks nearly fell off when I heard this one. On first listen I was like, "YES! This is what I've been waiting for..." It starts off rather slow with beautiful melancholic vocals and then erupts into a gradual explosion of sound. I thought I was listening to early Tristania or Virgin Black for a second there and the change in direction showed that they are indeed capable of versatility. I think if Madder Mortem switched things up a bit, incorporating different sounds into their already great dark prog/metal sound, they'd be an amazing band. For now they're just slightly above average for me. Some may find this album to be brilliant but I personally found it to be the stepping stool for something possibly better.
They're definitely worth checking out so I'll for sure be keeping an eye out on Madder Mortem.
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