Norway’s Madder Mortem has been practicing its own rather unique style of metal for a good 16 years now and Eight Ways is the band’s fifth album. Like always the formula for the band includes bits of traditional metal, plenty of acoustic parts, progressive rock and a slight touch of doom and alt rock with loads of groove all held together by Agnete M. Kirkevaag’s completely unique and powerful vocals.

If that description sounds like it could be a bit of a mess, then worry not. The band is more than capable of writing great songs that are complex in arrangement but also quite catchy and memorable. Album opener Formaldehyde starts off slow and melodic before the band kicks things up a notch mixing a rumbling bass tone and heavy guitars with Agnete’s powerful voice. The Little Things is another superb song that mixes soft and heavy to great effect and sounds like The Gathering jamming with Arcturus. The highlight of the album though is the two songs in the middle. A Different Kind of Hell is held together by Agnete’s full bodied bellow and a cracking central riff while the largely acoustic When Dream and Day Collide once again plays out the band’s penchant for mixing soft and heavy to great effect and ends in an intense burst of heavy guitars and electronic noise.

There really isn’t a bad song here, just a bunch of great songs and a few good songs. The rhythm section is superb right through and the drum and bass interplay really adds its weight to these songs. The guitar duo of BP and Odd are pretty much spot on and sound at home whether playing big fat grooves or during the softer parts but the star of the show really is Agnete. Her voice goes from quiet and contemplative to a loud, rich bellow and shows off tremendous range often sounding more like a jazz singer than a vocalist for a metal band. Also, her vocal melodies really help in making these songs memorable.

Eight Ways is probably not an album that will appeal immediately but the more I listen to it the more I’m finding it difficult to find flaws. At the end of the day, if you’re a fan of this band then chances are you’ve got this already. If you’ve never heard of this band before then Eight Ways is pretty much the perfect place to start. Every good idea that the band has had in their last four albums has come to fruition on Eight Ways making this Madder Mortem’s best effort yet.

Label: Peaceville Records

Year of release: 2009