Mortiis has released a gore-splattered video for the song Visions Of An Ancient Future ahead of his forthcoming album Spirit Of Rebellion.
The former Emperor bassist originally recorded the song on his long out-of-print 1994 solo album Ånden som Gjorde Opprør, from his so-called ‘Era 1’ period. This brand new version sees Mortiis completely reinterpreting the song for the 21st century.
“I had all these artistic aversions to everything I'd done in the 90s for different reasons,” Mortiis tells Metal Hammer. “But when [Swedish record label] Cold Meat Industry asked me to play their 30th anniversary show, I decided that it was time to go back to it and re-interpret some of it.
“I started again from scratch. I re-recorded everything, digging up new things and replacing old sounds. And I always felt the old Mortiis stuff could have had more percussion. That was one of the things I went crazy on – I added some really heavy percussion in places. It's epic-sounding now in parts.”
Visions Of An Ancient Future is taken from Spirit Of Rebellion, which is a modern reimagining of Ånden som Gjorde Opprør.
“This is just a snippet of the song - a section I thought was effective for a video. The whole song in itself is 25 minutes – that’s longer than the original song. The whole of Spirit Of Rebellion now is 50 minutes. The original was 38 minutes.”
Mortiis has also announced a US tour which begins on March 28 and ends on April 7. To mark the tour, he is offering free downloads of 24 Mortiis-related digital releases via Bandcamp for a limited time. You can find them here.
Mortiis 2019 US tour
Mar 28: Metro Gallery Baltimore, MD
Mar 29: Brooklyn Bazaar, New York, NY
Mar 30: The Raven, Worcester, MA (Northeast Dungeon Siege)
Mar 31: Petit Campus, Montreal, QC
Mar 01: Velvet Underground, Toronto, ON
Apr 02: The Forge, Joilet, IL
Apr 04: El Corazon, Seattle, WA
Apr 05: Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, OR
Apr 06: Oakland Metro, Oakland, CA
Apr 07: Lodge Room, Los Angeles, CA
