Mortem Agmen has made their presence felt in a fairly short time with a demo, a full-length album and most recently with a new EP. Although all three releases have a fairly distinct sound, it is clear that these four Germans are not guided by trends or other modernities: this is Black Metal of the old school. About that rapid rise of Mortem Agmen and the background of the musical decisions made, I spoke with the band…
Hello and welcome! Ever since the release of your first demo I have been keeping an eye on your work and done my bit with reviewing all three of your releases. If you’d look back with me on those three efforts, how would you describe your journey with Mortem Agmen so far?
Hi and thank you for the Interview. It started pretty fast for us. Our first demo came out pretty fast and with united strength, the other songs for the album were finished in a short amount of time. Also at live shows the feedback has always been great, which pushes us forward.
With three releases under your collective belts you can hear a certain progression you’ve made as a band. Although stemming from the same formula, all three do sound significantly different. How would you describe the musical evolution of Mortem Agmen?
Our point of view is that the song writing in our style, which started to develop on the demo, has to progress from release to release. We always like to include different influences, but the main focus is to sound old school. One of the most important things to us is that we work together, we don’t want to stay in one place with our music, we want to push our style but still maintain it.
All of those three works have been recorded and released in a span of only about 18 months and with a rather impressive quality straight from the first demo it feels like your musical path was clearly mapped out right from the start. What did the very beginning of the band look like? Was it all a pre-conceived plan or did things just fall into place by accident?
Marbas and Morax founded Skriptum in 2020, which was a precursor to Mortem Agmen. Then in 2023 they rearranged a few things and it became Mortem Agmen. But nobody thought that everything would go the way it did. We are a unity, which keeps going and is greatly motivated. That’s why we had such a high output in a short amount of time. Also one of the most important things to us is to show presence.
Further picking up on the musical contents a bit… In the reviews I wrote for each of your reviews I mentioned a few different bands and styles of Black Metal. The demo had a bit of that Krohm-styled American Black Metal to it, the album had a stronger German Black Metal connotation and the latest EP reminds me more of Satanic Warmaster. How do you look upon such comparisons?
These comparisons honour us. What we do is always a product of the time it’s done in. Every one of us experiences different things and has different influences. These influences, if by accident or not, make a big impact on the way our music is created and the vibe it has.
I also mentioned that although you are not using any keyboards, there’s a deep atmospheric spirit in the music. The power of the music is mainly found in the strong and memorable riffs; definitely one of the strongest assets of the band. How does the creative process of song crafting looks like for Mortem Agmen? Does it all evolve around those riffs?
Yes, our music is heavily riff based. Everything starts with the riffs, the bass goes hand in hand with them. Then the drums are added to round it off and then the structure and arrangements are developed. Of course not every song of us is made after this formula, sometimes the drums inspire us to certain riffs or a member has a finished song, which we then arrange until everyone is happy with the result.
It’s those riffs that mainly made me think of bands like Satanic Warmaster whereas the vocals and the overall song writing had this late 90’s German Black Metal flavour. Although your real identities and age are mostly undisclosed, it is a safe bet to say you are no rookies in the German Black Metal scene. How much of your native Black Metal scene did influence you in the way you look at the genre as a whole and did anything of that slip into your way of creating music?
Actually we are not influenced by any German black metal bands. Our inspiration and influence come from bands from the northern countries like Sweden, Finland and of course and most importantly Norway. Everybody has different preferences in this giant spectrum, but it all hails from the north.
As far as I was able to find out, only your drummer Malphas has some documented past in metal, most notably as the drummer for Amystery, Profane Existence and shortly for Lunar Aurora. But, judging from the quality of the offered music with Mortem Agmen it is highly improbable that this is a first band for some of you… How did your musical path look like that lead you to what you’re doing with Mortem Agmen now?
When Marbas and Morax founded Mortem Agmen, they were a two-piece band and Malphas was originally a session drummer, but due to the motivation from Marbas (who is Malphas’ son) he quickly became a full member of the band. Morax also was involved in one-man projects before, where he gained the experience he brings to Mortem Agmen. Marbas grew up with Black Metal and also played live for Amystery. But for Marbas and Mantus Mortem Agmen is the first own band.
Something else that is worth mentioning is the great sound quality on all of your three releases. It doesn’t only give the listener a stronger experience of what you are capable of, it also shows your professionalism as a band. It all sounds raw but clear enough to boost those riffs. Is this also part of the grand scheme of things?
It is important for us to deliver a clear spectrum of sound but also to maintain the characteristic grit, that is essential to Black Metal. Most importantly every member of the band should shine.
Both your demo and album have been released by Nachzehrer Records, the owner even had a brief position in the band, but the newly recorded EP is still unreleased on physical format. Will Nachzehrer Records step in on this again? Judging from its two tracks even a 7″ EP would be a great format for it…
No. We ended the cooperation with Nachzehrer Records, due to personal differences. But this does not stop us, we don’t look back, we will move on and remain as strong as before.
We’ve talked about your musical influences earlier, if I take a look at your song titles it is as if you take inspiration from rather traditional topics such as darkness, destruction and general evil. That really demands some further explanation. What drives you guys on a non-musical level? Any specific literature or philosophies that finds their way into your music?
The dark, mystic & misanthropic is something which is fascinating to us all and it goes hand in hand with the music. Our inspiration reaches from texts about dark forces, dark fantasy to misanthropic and nihilistic topics.
“Never judge a book by its cover”. In my reviews I also cited the rather basic logo, reminding of the demos from around the turn of the millennium. On the internet it seems to be a thing that was discussed too. Although undeniably unsophisticated compared to all the arty logos of today, to me it adds to the old school spirit of Mortem Agmen. How important are such traditional aesthetics to you?
It all just fits perfectly together, we want to keep the old school spirit alive, because it characterized us all. That reaches from the logo to the corpse paint & the overall aesthetics. It all is deeply connected with our music and attitude.
You have also been playing live quite a bit over the past months, including a sold-out show with Nargaroth. How do you think your music translates to a live environment? Is there anything that you’d say was particularly memorable from those live experiences?
It is a big interaction and connection, we as a band give our energy to the audience and the feedback from the audience does that to us. It is incredible to see people enjoy what you do. Our most memorable show was the one with Nargaroth. The Mood and the feedback were amazing. All of the bands were on eye level with each other and it was such an honour to open for a band that shaped the scene in this amount.
Other than the physical release of your newest EP, is there anything else in the works that is already worth mentioning?
At the moment we are deeply focused on the song writing for our next musical inferno. Prepare yourselves for an apocalyptic storm.
Alright, that’s it for now. Thanks a lot for your time and effort. Last and closing words are yours…
Once again, thank you for the interview, the interest and attention.
Hails! On behalf of Mortem Agmen.
