I have no competent statistical evidence to back up this assertion, but it seems like the way most metal bands work is that the music comes first and then the vocalist, who may or may not be an instrumental performer, comes up with lyrical themes and words that might have no connection to whatever the other songwriters were feeling and thinking when they cooked up the music.
That is probably not the way things have worked in Mother of All. This band is the brainchild of Danish musician Martin Haumann, and although he has surrounded himself in Mother of All‘s recordings with some very talented instrumental performers to augment his own prodigious talents, it’s he who is the lyricist and the songwriter, and the lyrical themes have been crafted with such conceptual focus and adamance of belief that it seems unlikely they were an afterthought. More likely, those themes were in mind when much of the music was written.
On the other hand, the music on Mother of All‘s new album Global Parasitic Leviathan, which we’re premiering today just days from its April 12 release, is so fantastically exhilarating that it may create a disconnect in the minds of listeners from what the album is about. But let’s begin with what the album is about….
As in the case of Mother of All‘s debut album Age of the Solipsist, the new one explores deplorable existential themes of our current age. Here, the themes concern the pervasive and seemingly relentless turn toward corporate and financial tyranny in the Western world; the lyrics of every song focus on different aspects of that movement. As explained by Martin Haumann:
“I wanted to paint a disturbing picture of a dystopian and immoral religion ruling the world and its God being worshipped. Then to show that it is true, by examples.
“Prime for this ‘Global Parasitic Leviathan,’ is the idea that self-interest is a virtue, actually the highest virtue. Then I wanted to show how the destruction of democracy, humanity, human progress and prosperity follows from that premise. Each song details different aspects of this.
“The concept interacts well with political and societal developments in the US, South America and Europe. If true, it can even be predictive of why and how the (local to the band) Scandinavian societies will devolve in the future.”
For Mother of All‘s first album, Haumann brought along Steve Di Giorgio (Testament, Death, Sadus) on bass and newcomer Frederik Jensen on guitars. The new one is Mother of All’s first recording with a full lineup, having recently recruited members from acts such as Lamentari, Chaoswave, and Withering Surface. The talents of all the performers are fully displayed and extremely impressive.
The songwriting also displays even more vividly the extensive training and multi-faceted music interests of Martin Haumann, resulting in eclectic and adventurous songs that pull from many different wellsprings of metal, among them progressive and melodic death metal and thrash (and other wells outside of metal), and that immediately and relentlessly get the blood pumping and the mind spinning.
“Cosmic Darkness” begins this audio manifesto with the gradually swelling volume of a darting and dancing riff that sounds jubilant, which might not be what you would be expecting, given the album’s themes — but before too long a riot breaks out.
The riffing becomes frantic and frenzied, the drumming a battering barrage, the vocals a screaming fury. Dissonant notes blare, the bass rapidly jolts, and the grooves cause muscles to jump while fingers manically leap around the frets and then spin up a soloing fireworks display. Bits of forlorn melody surface, and maybe there’s even a sense of desperation as well as rage and jubilation in all the instrumental cavorting.
One might be tempted to forget the album’s thematic concept when you get your head spun and your muscle fibers galvanized by a song like that one, and there’s no end to the head-spinning and pulse-pumping sensations as the album proceeds.
The head spins not only because of the free-wheeling technical mastery of the fretwork but also because of how fast the surprises come… like the glittering cool-jazz instrumental that begins “Corporate Warfare Leviathan” before it turns into a racing sonic battering ram, interspersed by a multitude of exhilarating fretwork flurries, cruelly scraping chords, wild yells, and gut-churning bass lines… or the wailing and yowling solo that lights up that song’s finale… or the sad and soulful instrumental break that occurs in the album’s final song “Pillars”.
Or… the dismal and despairing effect of the wailing and boiling riffage that opens “The Stars, Already Faded”… or the quivering guitar-leads and nimble bass tones that both seem like expressions of yearning in the midst of jackhammering assaults. The vocals are no less enraged than before, but this song is a heart-sinker as well as a head-spinner, as much a grieving and despairing witness to calamity as the calamity itself.
In that sense, “The Stars…” might be considered a divergence from the exhilarating through-lines of riot and rapture that course through the album, a dark digression from the convulsive grooves and delirious riffage that make the music so electrifying.
However, it’s not the only such divergence. Even in the midst of the more usual high-powered and kaleidoscopic adventures, swirling solos and slowly moaning melodies bring moments of heartbreak, and murmuring bass motifs channel beleaguered regret. Indeed, the last moments of the album as a whole consist of mournful acoustic strumming. And on the other hand, different divergences cause the music to blaze in glory.
But at their core, where these songs really thrive is in their combining of the kind of rapid punch-and-pulse that get their compulsive hooks in the listener’s reptile brain and the kind of extravagantly delirious and fast-changing fretwork that puts your head in a blender and hits the puree button, to make a swirling cocktail of your higher faculties.
And so, while themes of condemnation, disgust, fury, and fore-warning animate the album’s conception, and surely drive the red-eyed and raging vocals, the music is a near-nonstop rush that relentlessly pops eyes and drops jaws, tremendously elaborate but with enough voltage to power a metropolis, and it proves to be highly infectious too.
Sure, it has also phases that seem to channel dismay, cold-hearted cruelty, bleakness, and heart-ache — and the band’s ability to infiltrate such phases so seamlessly within so many instrumental spectacles is one of its signal achievements.
We venture to guess that there’s no point in the album where you’ll be tempted to tune out, so plan to set aside the time to take the whole trip before you start, and not to think about anything else, because it’s unlikely anything else will distract you, short of your home catching on fire.
MOTHER OF ALL:
Martin Haumann – Vocals and Drums
Michael Møller – Bass
Henrik Rangstrup – Lead, Rhythm Guitar
Frederik Øgaard Jensen – Additional Guitar
Daniel Nielsen – Live Drums
More Credits: Music and lyrics by Martin Haumann. Arranged by Mother Of All. Mixed and mastered by Marco Angioni with Martin Haumann. Cover art and layout by Henrik Rangstrup.
The album is available for pre-order on CD, vinyl, and digital formats.
PRE-ORDER:
https://motherofallofficial.bandcamp.com/album/global-parasitic-leviathan
PRE-SAVE (Digital):
https://orcd.co/globalparasiticleviathan
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