THE BEAST

Swedish black metallers MARDUK have released the official music video for the title track of their new album, "Viktoria", which was made available on June 22 via Century Media Records.

In a recent interview with the Impact metal channel, MARDUK guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson stated about "Viktoria": "For me, it's a continuation of the 'Frontschwein' album. It's, in the sense, a MARDUK album, I would say. The music writes a different journey from 'Frontschwein', I would say, but it's still the continuation for the same thing. As with any other MARDUK, it's a complete different musical journey. It has a lot of variation, power, aggression, devotion, feeling. It's hard to explain when it's so fresh in your mind. But, we're proud of it. I think it's a great MARDUK album.

Morgan also talked about MARDUK's evolution, saying: "It's hard to describe. You constantly play and keep on doing what you believe in. Things change. That's the way it is. You don't do the same thing you did when you were 17 years old or whatever. Most people would say it's a natural progression. We're not one of those bands who sit down and think, 'We have to do this, we have to do that.' We always follow our instinct. We do whatever we think. It's always about making music and lyrics becoming one. The music is reflected in the lyrics and the other way around. That's why we keep on doing whatever theme the album has. This is the fourteenth album and I'm sure the fifteenth is going to be different as well."

Morgan stressed the significance of MARDUK's lyrics, explaining: "The thing that I always say is important is, as I said earlier on and I've said a thousand times, is to make music and lyrics to become one. For instance, a lot of bands, I get the feeling they write music and they just put some lyrics on it just to have something to sing. For us, the lyrics are equally as important as the music and we put a lot of energy into making it fit into each song so they reflect each other so you get the full picture in your mind and it creates a picture in your mind. It should be like a painting stuck in your mind."

"Viktoria" track listing:

01. Werwolf
02. June 44
03. Equestrian Bloodlust
04. Tiger I
05. Narva
06. The Last Fallen
07. Viktoria
08. The Devil's Song
09. Silent Night

Morgan is the sole remaining member of MARDUK who played on the band's debut album, 1992's "Dark Endless".