Back in September, British old school death metal band Memoriam issued the following update:

"Hello all, we unfortunately have some bad news: we are working on album number five. We have pretty much wrapped up the instrument demos, Scott (Fairfax - guitarist) is busy working on writing some absolute classic old school death metal riffage, soon it will be the turn of Frank (Healy - bassist) to sit in at riff central and drink, which ultimately leads to a few changes, then onto Karl (Willetts - singer) to vocal demo the tracks. Exciting and busy times, no time to waste."

Memoriam will release the new album, Rise To Power, on February 3rd, 2023 via Reaper Entertainment.

Rise To Power will break open doors, because next to the essential Death Metal groove, Memoriam are more variable with each additional song and keep adding new dynamics to their sound - from brutal grooves to doomy-melodic parts to aggressive Nordic riffing - Rise To Power is an extremely varied album.

Once again, the production by Russ Russell (Napalm Death, Dimmu Borgir, At The Gates) at Parlor Studios rounds off the grandiose songwriting and the first-class recordings, which are charmingly "down-to-earth", but wonderfully differentiated and come along with every detail on Rise To Power gives the deserved space.

Since the band's early days, Dan Seagrave (Benediction, Dismember, Hypocrisy, Suffocation) a constant companion who visually accompanies the music. After designing the artwork for the first four Memoriam albums, he also designed the cover for Rise To Power.

The band comments: "Introducing album number 5, Rise To Power, the second album in the second trilogy. For this album we have once again worked with creative genius Dan Seagrave. Dan designed the previous 4 album covers for us, so there was no other choice to keep the theme and continuity. We love his work and it's a great experience to be part of the creative process while the artwork is being made. Seeing our fundamental ideas come to life through his mind and hands is amazing and he always delivers. 

This time the cover is a majestic purple and features the "King" (the central figure in all of the artwork Dan creates for us) at his coronation ceremony where he "rises to power". The new album's lyrical content ties in with its predecessors by maintaining the theme of grief, loss and despair along with social commentary on current events such as the war in Ukraine and past events such as the Holocaust. The ubiquitous theme of war runs through the entire album, as it does on all the others. 

We consider Rise To Power to be our strongest album yet as it contains a variety of songs that build on what we've accomplished with Memoriam over the past 7 years. Rise To Power is a true celebration of life through death metal."

The tracklist is as follows:

"Never Forget, Never Again (6 Million Dead)"
"Total War"
"I Am the Enemy"
"The Conflict is Within"
"Annihilation's Dawn"
"All is Lost" 
"Rise to Power"
"This Pain"

Memoriam are:

Karl Willetts - Vocals
Frank Healy - Bass
Scott Fairfax - Guitar
Spike T. Smith - Drums

(Photo - Timm Sonnenschein)