When last we wrote about the Finnish black metal band Marras the occasion was the premiere of a song from their strikingly good 2019 debut album Where Light Comes to Die. A new album, Endtime Sermon, provides the occasion for us to revisit them, through yet another premiere. Like the first album, this second one will be released by Spread Evil Productions. It’s destined to hit the streets on July 9th.
A story lies behind the song we’re presenting today, “As Night Gets Darker“. It’s a story inspired by Finnish writer Boris Hurtta, who just passed away in February 2021, and thus the song is a tribute to him. The band tell the tale as follows:
“Centuries ago humans began to populate the unknown and started to build towns in the wild nature, little did they know that they had come to a wrong territory. To a place they do not belong. Since the beginning of time creatures of the forest had been living there and now they watched from the distance how humanity took more and more of their home. From the shadows of the woods they watched how humans lived their life without knowing what’s to come.
“As the autumn nights are getting darker and darker and the winter is coming, so are the creatures getting closer. Soon they will strike and burn down the village. Not to kill, but to drive the human intruders away. Away from their burning homes and into the cold, just to see how long will they survive alone in the darkness. Soon the winter will come and snow covers the tracks of humans and buries their burned town. It’s like they’ve never been here. ‘Sleep now human, we cover your tracks. No one will find you here. We’ve been here before you and will be after you’re gone.'”
Remember that malevolent and frightening narrative as you absorb this deliriously violent yet multi-faceted song. Above riotously turbulent drums and bass, the high, frenzied riffing seems to swing and delight in its searing savagery, but also to channel morbid dread and chilling hopelessness — as if the song is capturing not only the fiery assaults of ancient beasts but also the awful travails of fleeing humans.
The vocals are completely unhinged and ferociously vehement, but sweeping synths and stately beats also give the music an aura of terrible, tragic grandeur on a mythic scale.
If you enjoyed “As Nights Get Darker“, we invite you to also hear the first advance song from the new album, “Shadows Upon The Sacred Land“. At the outset it’s more mystical and haunting than today’s premiere, and the momentous pounding and rising symphonic and organ tones give it a feeling of majestic eminence.
The clarion synths persist in shrouding the song with an unearthly atmosphere, both wondrous and perilous, even after the band convulse in ravaging assaults, and the synths also move the song in deeply melancholy ways. And so the music combines visceral driving strength and mood-altering visions. You’ll find a stream of it below.
PRE-ORDER:
https://spreadevil.bandcamp.com/album/endtime-sermon
MARRAS:
https://www.facebook.com/marrasblackmetal