MARDUK Mainman Morgan Hakansson - "The Only True Democracy Is Through The Eyes Of Death Because With Death Everyone Is Equal”
June 8, 2007, 17 years ago
Swedish black metallers MARDUK recently released their new album, ROM 5:12, via Regain/Koch. BW&BK; spoke to leader/founder/guitarist Morgan Hakansson for a major feature set to appear in BW&BK; #105 - out later this month.
The album title Marduk have chosen is taken from a profound verse from the Holy Bible. Exploring intensely the theme of death, said passage refers to sin coming to the earth through man and spreading amongst all men, eventually leading to death. Ergo, Rom 5:12 is probably Marduk’s most thought-provoking album yet, strictly on a thematic level.
“The only true democracy is through the eyes of death because with death everyone is equal,” says Marduk leader/founder/guitarist Morgan Hakansson. “We had three different album titles, but we didn’t have the immediate feeling on what it should be. So I discussed it with Mortuus, and I was working on a lyrical line and I had that line in mind from the Bible, and we thought that was the connection with the album. That whole chapter Rom 5:12 is what each song on the album is about - through sin comes death. The album is to enter a different state of mind and look through the eyes of death.”“It’s inspired a lot by the Baroque thinking regarding death because during that time, it was like a revival of the medieval way of thinking about death. I actually have a collection of funeral prayers from the 1600s because at that time, they had these printed funeral prayers that everybody had in the church. And of course a lot of German Baroque poets and their views upon death are also a neverending source of inspiration.”
