Review: Karg – Marodeur

Review by K

Karg – Marodeur

Record Label: AOP Records

Year: 2025

Rating: 10/10

Austria. A land of ineffable beauty, soaring mountains, vast lakes, good beer,  The Sound of Music and the occasional xenophobic dictator. In the past, it’s also been home to some seriously good quality BM bands too. Its impressive roster includes such luminaries as Abigor, Summoning and Pazuzu. Hoping to become as historic as this formidable legion are Karg, a low-mood Post-Black five-piece from Salzburg. Karg are not new to this; they’ve been around for nearly 20 years and over the course of several albums have evolved through their early Ambient Black Metal roots to become the rather serious act they are now.

Marodeur, the latest opus, kicks off with “Schnee ist das Blut der Geister” which, if my ever-improving Duolingo German isn’t mistaken, translates as, “Snow is the blood of the Goatherder.” I might have to do that lesson again. Anyhoo, from the off, we are looking at mid-paced Post Black Doom and Gloom. The (many) lyrics are shouted by V. Wahntraum (vocals, bass) in a kind of Panzerfaust-lite manner. No melodics or harmonies are displayed here and they’re not really needed as the accomplished music more than makes up for it. Indeed, somewhere near the end, we are treated to a very lovely piano solo straight from the most miserable piano café on the planet. It’s actually quite compelling. The tempo varies from the mid-paced beginning to some most respectable blast-beat driven passages of blistering guitars. The atmosphere is one of darkened sadness, tinged with some utter misery. This isn’t going to be a cheery experience. A very pleasing opening.

“Findling” (rather too close to “Fiddling” for me) holds its own in the difficult role of  Second Track, charged as second tracks are, with holding the listener’s interest. If the listener gets through the second track, then the album stands a chance of being fully heard. This track has everything required to perform its task. Beautifully fierce and razor-sharp harmonies blaze under  Wahntraum’s desperate howls and create a very immersive feel to the track. And there are ideas everywhere. Most impressive young Skywalker.

“Yūgen” for all the world could easily be mistaken for an early Katatonia track. At least the first 20 seconds could. From its rather lovely opening theme,  the track continues on its journey of sadness and dark, haunted atmospheres. Occasionally, the clean vocals swim to the surface from the depths and accompany the screams with a startlingly vivid effect. This is pure Post Black music of the highest order, a Novembre/Katatonia hybrid that would have many of our dearly departed BM musicians punching their way out of the ground to listen to it. Very much the star of the show so far.

“Verbrannte Brücke”, after a charming instrumental opening, cements the suspicion that this is turning out to be a very fine album indeed. The main guitar theme is straight from the home of eternal sadness, and Wahntraum’s tortured screams are off the scale. All we need now is a depressing violin accompaniment. Oh, there it is. Not a track to listen to if you’re standing on something high.

Karg

Now warmed up, the violinist takes centre stage for the opening of “Annapurna”, which, if I remember rightly, is one of the Himalayan mountains, but I might be wrong there. It’s a bit academic anyway, as the lyrics are way beyond my own Duolingo German,  but this is one of the many advantages of our music. You don’t have to understand the lyrics to feel what the band is trying to achieve. Everything you need can be obtained from the talent of the musicians. An ability to understand the many languages we encounter in this genre is an advantage, but not a necessity. About ¾ of the way through Piano Man returns along with a Sad Female Spoken Word Artist for a short break,  and then the track wraps itself up in a wall of mid paced guitar and violin. Sad Female “Ahh” Person also pops her head in the door. Beautiful.

“Reminiszenzen Einer Jugend” begins the run into the close of this fine record. Once again, we are in a land stalked by a seriously violent soundscape, the ground scattered with the decaying guitars from long-dead Katatonia albums. The riffery is of the finest quality, (take a bow all 3 (!) guitarists) and one can only assume that the nights spent quietly discussing how to combine, craft and weave their finest riffs into what we hear here, were nights that we as mere mortals would have loved to have witnessed.

Oh well, chin up, here’s “Kimm”, yet another track full of riffs we all wish we had written ourselves. This track is a wonderfully paced mood-hoover, without a single shred of joy to be found. And yet the mastery of this genre that this fine band has achieved is uplifting in itself. You can’t fail to be moved by the sheer beauty of these compositions, and Kimm is one of the best examples on show here. This will make you happy. It’s a weird paradox that none of us can explain, least of all to our non-plussed co-workers when we are trying to explain our music taste to people…

And so to the end, the charmingly titled “Anemoia”. This is the track that, in one word, wraps up the entire feel of this fine work. A feeling of wistful nostalgia, a sense of mourning for long lost feelings, emotions, events and saddened memories of a time when we were, however fleetingly, happy. Often there’s fury and frustration, but overwhelmingly this album drips with sadness and regret. It’s not DSBM, far from it, rather a fond but mournful look at the past with a certainty that there will never be true contentment again.

This is a seriously strong album, far better than my trite rambling can convey. It’s full of meaning, even if we can’t understand the lyrical content. It’s full of sorrow, full of loss, resentment, darkness and failure of the human spirit. And yet it seems to glow with a warmth that few bands can achieve. Perhaps it’s hope….who knows. Try it for yourself and see…