Maridia, a dark post-hardcore band hailing from Sweden, is set to release their debut album this spring after two years of dedicated effort and countless late nights in the rehearsal room. The band’s debut track, “Guts of Mammon,” reveals their dark and grim take on metal-infused post-hardcore, blending elements of post-metal, vicious dark hardcore, and blackened atmospheric metal to create a unique and fresh sound.
The seeds of the band’s formation were planted years earlier between Chris, the guitarist, and his sister Alex, the vocalist, who both shared a passion for heavy music but had never collaborated on a project before. In the midst of the pandemic in 2020, Jonatan and Patrik joined the band on bass and drums, respectively. The band’s lineup was completed in February 2022 when Adrian joined as their second guitarist.
Despite the distance between the band members, who are based in Stockholm/Umeå, they have managed to write and put together their music. The band members rarely rehearse together due to the long 8-hour drive between them. However, they did manage to come together for a week in November 2022 to record their debut album at The Overlook Studio in Gävle, Sweden, a Sailor’s Church owned by William Blackmon, known for his work with Gadget and This Gift is a Curse.
The band defines their music as post-hardcore, with hardcore as their foundation, but draws on their diverse preferences and experiences. Band members have previously played a wide range of genres, from post-rock and black metal to crust/d-beat and deathcore. The band aims to avoid limiting themselves to locked genres and instead hopes to create something unique and fresh by blending their scattered influences.
The band’s name, Maridia, is taken from a series of challenging and unforgiving levels in the classic platform game, Super Metroid.
“Guts of Mammon” has been carefully chosen as Maridia’s first single and the opening track of their debut album. The band believes that the song encompasses their entire identity and represents the core of their artistic expression.
As for the lyrical content, Maridia’s vocalist Alex commented: “Guts of Mammon‘ is a straight forward criticism of modern society. There is a lot of violence and different forms of coercion and subjugation in our cultures, for the benefit of whom? Or what?
It seems to me that most people are in unison about not being fully satisfied with how civilisation is functioning. What if we took that sentiment seriously, instead of answering it with simple arguments like what minority or human flaws to blame? Shallow explanations like “it’s always been like that” come quick and most attempts of progressive perspectives will be put down for being “naive”.
In my opinion, the human population is somehow robbed of their full potential as caring, powerful and creative beings.
Like, “is this really it for us?” -I don’t believe we’re living our only option.
What if we could be childishly curious (in a positive sense) about what else we could all do with our lives and the world.”
“Finally, though it might feel like it’s “too late” (individually getting older, or as a society painting ourselves into a corner, feeling closer and closer to “the end”, maybe even a societal collapse of some sort), I think imagination and knowledge is always worth expanding. Though that usually brings us into conflict with the ways that brought us here.”
Maridia’s first EP, “Mouth of Ruin,” is set to premiere on IDIOTEQ.com on May 19th.
The EP was recorded in November 2022 at The Overlook Studio, which is located in an old Sailor’s Church in Gävle, Sweden, with the help of William Blackmon, known for his work with Gadget.
