Dear friends!

After a long time of keeping secrets in here the deep, dark woods of Norway, we finally got back on tour last year. We had almost forgotten how good it feels to be around lots of people who truly love music, and we were blown away by the warmth you showed us. You inspired us to jump right into a new album, and here it is!

The title “Marrow” is a salute to all the amazing people we have met who know who they are and where they belong. The marrow is the inner core, the essence of who we are. Our fans are an unapologetic bunch – but man, do they have backbone! We stand in awe of the fierce love for music you show us, and the energy and thought you bring to our conversations and our shows. You are the Marrow, the blood and the soul of the music we make. And for those of you who share our love for life and music and have come across our campaign, but do not know us yet, we would very much like to invite you to discover our musical past and become part of our future.

We’ve been around for a long time. None of us knew, back in the early 90s, in the rehearsal room at the youth club wearing our cut-off army shorts and big hoodies, that we would actually be able to realize our  dream of recording an album and going on tour. The only thing we knew was that we had to make music, and that it would be uncompromisingly and fearlessly our own.

And that’s what we’ve done. We have come to sound incredibly like Madder Mortem and nothing else. We’ve always made our decisions based on what feels right to us - right for the song, honest for the band. That means that we’re looking back at seven albums now that we still love and listen to, and after all these years, we’re still so in love with making music! We’re neck deep in ideas for the next album before we finish the previous one, and it looks like we won’t run out until we’re too old to remember a riff. We make songs from our hearts and our souls, and put everything we’ve got into making something that is true and honest and meaningful.

And now, with a new fire in our belly, we’d like to invite you to be a part of the next chapter of the Madder Mythology. Next year, 20 years will have passed since we released our first album. To celebrate the anniversary, we really want to make 2019 a special year for the Madder fans, and you can help make that happen!

Among the ideas we want to realize with you guys, is a re-recording and re-arranging of several songs from our first album, “Mercury”. That album is nearly impossible to get now, so we want to do a special re-release where we also show you what those songs would sound like, 20 years after, reworked into this era of Madder Mortem.

Back when we recorded “Mercury”, we were basically just kids, and we knew very little about how the recording process worked. The musicianship was mostly there, and the ideas were absolutely there, but as for production skills … we just liked reverb a lot! Thankfully, we ended up with a result we’re still proud of. But through the years, as we’ve played the songs with different line-ups, we’ve often talked about how cool it would be to bring the skills and know-how we have now to those ideas. BP has even made some quite elaborate pre-prods of several songs, but the timing has never been right for making a release out of it. But finally and with your support, we’re making it happen!

We also want to put on a special live show, with guests from throughout our history and a visual show to accompany it. We have gone through some line-up changes over the years, but we have always kept in touch with our previous members, and it would be amazing to be able to make some noise with them again. We also want to highlight the amazing artwork for all our albums by giving you a special visual show to accompany the music.

However, before any of that, we want to put on our first ever headliner tour. We had an amazing time on the road last year, but we’re really excited to go out under our own name. We have a huge back catalogue and our songs are sometimes quite long, so we’re really looking forward to be able to do longer sets that let us include more of the songs you’ve been requesting. But more than anything it lets us get that all-important creative input and energy from being inside the music together with you and getting your feedback in person.

To make this happen, we ask your help, because we want to make something spectacular! So we have put together this crowdfunding campaign to invite you to be a part of the Madder anniversary and history. We have created a list of perks that we think you’ll love, including our new album, and some items you certainly won’t find anywhere else. And if you dream of something very particular that is not on our list of perks, let us know – we want to make this campaign a fun and musically interesting event for ourselves and for you!

What we have suggested for the campaign and for the anniversary is just the beginning, and we want your input on what you would like to see and hear. Use your imagination, kickstart your creativity, and let’s make something special together!

Yours,

Madder Mortem