(written by Islander)
The story of Maceration is such an interesting and inspiring one, at least if you’re a nerdy death metal historian. They began in roughly 1990 as a death metal side project of two guys (Jakob Schultz and Jacob Hansen) from the Danish thrash band Invocator, catching the building death metal wave in Europe. They played their first gig that same year with Darkthrone back when that band was playing death metal. And their 1992 debut album A Serenade of Agony was what most people consider the first Danish death metal album. At least for that reason, and maybe a few others (such as a 19-year-old Dan Swanö recording session vocals for the record), it achieved a kind of cult status.
But as a side project Maceration turned out to be short-lived. There was an independently relased Maceration demo in 1995, and then nothing further for quite a long time (i.e., nearly 30 years). Thought dead, but with its heart still secretly beating, Maceration revived in 2022 with a new album authentically titled It Never Ends…, and to draw the red line back to the band’s origins it included growls by Dan Swanö in what (so far as we know) was his last performance of harsh vocals.
They followed that hellaciously good comeback album with another terrific album just last year — Serpent Devourment — with Dan Swanö still involved as producer and mixer, but with the band’s live vocalist Jan Bergmann Jepsen behind the mic. And now they have fairly quickly brought forth another full-length. Titled Mercy to the Miserable, it’s set for release on November 20th by Emanzipation Productions, a label that’s been with them arm-in-arm since the comeback album.
We are most happy today to premiere a lyric video for the final single from the new album in advance of that release, a song aptly named “Lycanthropic Carnage“. (And by the way, if you’re a nerdy metal historian like we are, it will be worth your time to read our contributor Zoltar’s wonderful 2025 interview of sole remaining founding member Jakob Schultz — here.)
Maceration’s lineup for their last album has remained intact for the new one. In addition to vocalist Jepsen and guitarist Schultz, it includes bassist Rune Koldby (ExMortem, Spectral Mortuary), drummer Nicolai Kaltoft (ex-Corpus Mortale), and rhythm guitarist Robert Tengs (ex-Defamatory). It’s clear that they have grown even more comfortable and better integrated with each other, both on stage and in the studio, but the lineup consistency doesn’t mean the new album is without changes.
On the production side of things, the new album was mixed and mastered by Lawrence Mackrory of Rory Sound, known for his work with Paradise Lost, Bloodbath, Meshuggah, Vomitory, Lik, and many others, instead of Dan Swanö. As Jakob Schultz explains:
We have had a collaboration with Dan Swanö for a long time and he has delivered and shaped our sound since we came back. He has produced two records that sound amazing. With the new album we wanted to try something new and see what it could do for the sound and the music. We could have easily continued with Swanö, but we think it would be exciting to work with Mackrory. He has produced some fantastic records and can create a sound that we think really fits Maceration perfectly. And we have not regretted it. The new album sounds exactly as we had hoped.
Another change is that the new album’s cover art was created by Spanish artist Roberto Diaz rather than Ola Larsson, whose stunning Lovecraftian creations graced both It Never Ends… and Serpent Devourment. But as you can see above, Roberto Diaz’s artwork is also stunning, albeit in a different way.
But we should turn to the music now, and specifically to the werewolf-themed “Lycanthropic Carnage” and its animated lyric video.
In this song Maceration have got their HM-2 buzzsaws running hot and fast, savagely mauling and belching choking levels of musical exhaust, and they support that with burly bass-lines and variably paced by persistently skull-cracking drumwork.
But the song also stands out because of its vividly vibrating lead-guitar melodies, which channel changing moods, moods (as we hear them) of frantic desperation, ominous menace, dismal misery, grim savagery, and crazed blood-lust. Lyrically, this is a tormented tale of transformation, and that narrative is also captured in the music, with the dynamism of the drumming well-calculated to enhance all the changes.
The song further includes a beautifully rendered guitar solo whose writhing wails interlock with some of the song’s melodies. And the vocals stand out too. They’re ferociously explosive and impassioned, bestial in their harshness yet entirely intelligible. They sound just as you would imagine a werewolf would sound, overcome by its torment.
Speaking of things beautifully rendered, the animation in the accompanying video is riveting to watch along with the words, and it matches up extremely well with the changes in the song.
MACERATION is:
Jakob Schultz – lead/rhythm guitar
Robert Tengs – rhythm guitar
Rune Koldby – bass
Nicolai Kaltoft – drums
Jan Bergmann Jepsen – vocals
Emanzipation Productions will release Mercy to the Miserable on LP (black vinyl and creme/black splatter vinyl, both limited to 300 copies), CD, and digital formats on November 20th. It’s available for pre-order now.
After the links we’ve also included videos for of the first two singles off the new album, the title song and “The Fall of Virtue“. Further evidence that with this album Maceration have another winner on their hands.
PRE-ORDER:
https://bit.ly/macer-shop
MACERATION:
https://maceration.bandcamp.com/album/mercy-to-the-miserable
https://www.instagram.com/macerationdenmark/
https://www.facebook.com/maceration