“Memento Mori – Cause you take nothing with you to your grave, except your coffin”
Just recently, Germany’s medieval folk rockers FEUERSCHWANZ announced their upcoming studio album, Memento Mori. Now, FEUERSCHWANZ present a true ode to life with “Memento Mori”, accompanied with a great audio-visual, which reveals the secret about the title track of the upcoming full-length.
With singing guitars, “Memento Mori” starts its heroic journey through epic soundscapes. The song emerges as a melodic rock anthem with familiar medieval character full of blazing guitar riffs and violin solos. Lyrically, FEUERSCHWANZ encourage self-reflection on one’s own existence in “Memento Mori” and confront with human transience, following the motto of living your life to the fullest – right here and right now.
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Prinz Hodenherz on the new song:
“The title track of the new album is the logical continuation of our previous album Das Elfte Gebot. The saying “Memento Mori” (Latin for “Be aware of mortality”) originates from ancient Rome and was one of the main ideas in the poetry of the High Middle Ages as well as the Vanitas movement of German Romanticism. It is still a frequently quoted motif in the visual arts world today. In the song, the Gregorian chant “Dies Irae” (Latin for “Day of Wrath”) is quoted with bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and Hans’ heavy guitars.
Nerdfact: If you listen closely, you will also find the central motif of world-famous film scores, including the soundtrack of “The Lord of the Rings”!
What does all this have to do with FEUERSCHWANZ? Since the band was founded, it has always been about living in the here and now and celebrating existence. In ancient Rome there was a ritual where a slave stood or walked behind the victorious commander during the triumphal procession. He held a gold or laurel wreath over the head of the victorious and continuously admonished them with the waits “Memento Mori”. To us this means: Even if you have something to celebrate – everything could be over at any moment! That’s kind of what happened to us when we played by far our biggest headlining shows shortly before the pandemic began and our most successful album, Das Elfte Gebot, was released. For us as a band, it was a formative experience that united us even more and allowed us to look forward creatively.
We are looking forward to experiencing, enjoying and capturing all the great concert moments again together with our fans on Memento Mori… as if the ferryman was already standing by.
We invite everyone who, like us, thirsts for life.”
Watch the New Video for “Memento Mori”
HERE:
