By: Anders

Posted: Jul 8, 2006

The new Marduk album is now upon us, 11 tracks of aggressive and harsh black metal, delivered with a breathtaking and brutal pace, that'll leave weak souls breathless and scared behind. The Swedes seems in the form of their life and delivers black metal with the speed and brutality of "Panzer Division Marduk", the newer more down-tuned death metal influences is shining through once in a while, together with hints from the majestic and epic atmospheres they displayed on their earlier opuses.

The song-writing is fierce and straight to the point, the guitars deliver aggressive and cold riffs, melodic yet ear-piercing. The drumming is fast and blasting, but still containing a lot of good breaks and great fills, which adds the needed variation. The bass is grinding beneath the huge and devastating wall of guitars, though are audible most of the time. The vocals are good and very fitting again, mostly aggressive and full of spite, though at other times lower and more evil and hellish, like in 'Perish In Flames', a vocal style very fitting as well, and melts good in with the dark epic and evil atmosphere on that track.

Solid song writing, a solid production and ass-kicking musicianship, makes this album the solid and whole package that it is. Classical Marduk deeds mixed with the newer elements the band has displayed, into a very hard-hitting and brutal package that will leave fans of the band happy and embrace new fans into the world of Marduk. It is the not the most groundbreaking or monumental album the Swedes have made, but it is not bad at all, pretty fresh sounding and as written earlier, very brutal, fast and hard-hitting, and it delivers many hours of good listening, a must for fans of the band and the style.

Rating: 8½/10

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