Now here’s a band with pedigree! Norway’s black metal squad Mortem have been around since 1987, right at the forefront of the infamous second wave. Though their heyday produced only the Slow Death demo and their debut record, Ravnsvart, took until 2019 to release, their individual band members have kept themselves busy. Consisting of guitarist/keyboardist Steinar Sverd Johnsen, vocalist Marius Vold, drummer Jan “Hellhammer” Blomberg, and newcomer bassist Tor Stavenes, Mortem’s genealogy traces lines through the likes of Mayhem, Arcturus, Thorns, 1349, Emperor, and way too many other bands. Now, almost forty years since their inception, Mortem are unleashing their sophomore album Mørketid, promising in their promo “eight tracks of savage, eerie, and often epic black metal.” Will Mortem’s collective experience translate to top-shelf black metal, or will Mørketid’s time under the sun be short-lived?
“Mørketid” is the Norwegian word for polar night, where the sun stays below the horizon for weeks during the winter months. It’s an eerie time that Mortem capture well on Mørketid. Between the persistent tremolos and rasps across Mørketid, an unsettling and understated melody gives the project an uncanny feel. Mortem’s keyboard presence does a lot for Mørketid’s texture, bestowing a creepy music box melody to “Aftermath” and a beefy Dimmu Borgir symphonic gothicness to “Ditt Ødes Ære.” But overall, if you’ve heard Mayhem’s early stuff, you know what to expect from Mortem. Buzzsaw guitars, phlegmy rasps, and drawn-out staggering through the dark are the name of the game here, highlighted on songs like “The Mighty Odious” and “Mørkets Ormebol.” Mortem have been around long enough to get these fundamentals down pat.
Though Mortem clearly put in the work, there are yet few standout performances on Mørketid. Outside of some surprisingly shreddy solos across Mørketid’s back end (“Den Sanne Gud,” “Aftermath”), Johnsen’s riffs are murky and standard-issue black metal, and while I appreciate Stavenes’ pronounced bass presence and the punchiness that comes with it (“Skyggeånd”), it nonetheless stays too firmly in the pocket. Similarly, Vold’s rasps are thick and gritty but rarely venture off from his slow-n-low mode, making his vocal presence seep into the background. Johnsen’s keyboards and Hellhammer’s drumming deserve note, however, as spidery key runs on “Mørketid” and “Mørkets Ormebol” do the heavy lifting in building mood and identity on their tracks, and shifting grooves and blasts all across Mørketid are its most varied and exciting asset. Mortem’s songwriting approach likely contributes to the muted performances: they’re hellbent for murk. But Mortem have ludicrous talent in their ranks, and I think a few more standout moments would’ve easily elevated Mørketid.
And therein lies Mørketid’s biggest issue: memorability. Besides “Blodvassen Grunn,” where Mortem open the blinds a smidge for a touch of lightness in their style, Mørketid is monotonously dark. Over-repetition plagues many of Mørketid’s tracks, watering down the vitality of songs like “Mørkets Ormebol” and “Skyggeånd” while inflating Mørketid’s runtime. None of Mortem’s songs are extraordinarily long, sitting around four to six minutes on average, but I often found myself checking the time halfway through each song anyway. Production owns some of the blame here; though everything’s clearly audible, everything sounds crushed and undynamic, wearing on both the ears and mind. There are times when Mortem flirt with variety, like the darkly groovy second half of “Aftermath” and the time “Den Sanne Gud” gets quiet and threatens to veer into an Iron Maiden epic,1 but these are few and far between on Mørketid. I don’t think I can give high marks to something I can’t remember after many listens.
It’s crazy to think that a band whose line-up is as storied as Mortem’s could struggle with a sophomore slump this far into their career, but here we are. Mørketid isn’t a bad record, but one that’s played too safely to truly stand out. Production issues and monotonous songwriting knock it down a notch further. Mortem occupy a space in metal’s history where a subpar record isn’t going to blemish their legacy. They were instrumental in founding one of its most iconic sub-genres. But Mørketid wasn’t released in 1987, and so has to stand up against the scores of other black metal releases from the decades since then. Sadly, it doesn’t.
Rating: Disappointing
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps MP3
Label: Peaceville Records
Websites: facebook.com/mortemnorway | bandcamp.com/album/morketid
Releases Worldwide: July 3rd, 2026
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