Is there a more German sounding town than Zschorlau? There’re at least five letters there that are completely needless. And it is from this enigma of a town that spawns the Black Metal enigma that is AD MORTEM. The foursome formed as far back as 2017. Over the next six years they produced but a few sparse Black Metal artifacts including one demo and two splits. On March 21, 2024, however, the band released their debut full-length album, “In Honorem Mortis,” via Purity Through Fire. The gallows-gutted album is a frenetic corpus of vehemence and despair. In other words, a pretty damn good debut.

The eight tracks—which span just over 43 minutes—are set to the unholy trifecta of tremolo riffs, distorted rhythms, demonic vocals bridled under the strains of blast beats and mesmeric melodies. In short, aggressive Melodic Black Metal with flourishes of Thrash and NWOBHM. Track to track, the album is extremely consistent. Just full-on assault. Some may interpret this as lacking inventiveness, but you get the feeling that AD MORTEM knows their strength and are sticking to it.   

Go-to tracks, at least in my book, are “Größer als das Leben” (trans: larger than life) for its unnaturally bending riffs; “Auf kalten Gräbern” (trans: on cold graves) for its Heavy Metal punch; and “Todesstreben” (trans: deathstriving) for its sheer malevolence. Also, is there not a more perfect Black Metal concept than ‘deathstriving’? How has this not been taken as a band name yet? And, yes, I checked.

The lyrics, which are all mostly delivered in German—a language that very much mirrors the guttural spirit of the album—are brooding, evil narratives about alternate gospels, puppet masters, cosmic obliteration, and the grimmest of reapers. Also mirroring the album’s dire intent is the crude and rudimentary cover art, depicting, in stark black and white, a burning village with a robed figure looking out at us. In one hand it holds a serpent staff; in the other an hourglass. Maybe it’s death, maybe any of the other three horseman sans their horse.

I’m not saying “In Honorem Mortis” breaks any land speed record or that it is destined to be written into the blasphemous annals of Black Metal history, but it is a solid debut and AD MORTEM is a band to watch.