MARDUK - LA GRANDE DANSE MACABRE - REGAIN/CENTURY MEDIA
Marduk's always been a matter of irony in these towers. Named after a 'good' god, the Swedes follow their catchy death metal offerings with all out evil black metal attacks. The band then creates controversy by stating implicit support for Hitler's Third Reich only to go on to bigger and better success plateaus. It seems as if Marduk can do no wrong. Consensus being that as long as the band is delivering such blue blood cacophony, the metal world will forgive any and all side shows. Which brings us to the band's first North American release which ironically comes on the heels of the band's departure from longtime label Osmose Productions. La Grande Danse Macabre fulfills the band's intention to slow down a notch and pull back from the unholy assault of an album like Panzer Division Marduk and veer back more towards Those of the Unlight and the catchier early 90's work. As such Marduk present an album featuring an album of mid-paced death, hyper-speed black and even a semi-doom effort. Overall though while not the band's best release, this dance is 666 times more genuine and talented than that accorded hyped bands like Emperor, CoF et al and worth the money the label wants from you for this. - Ali "The Metallian"

MARDUK - WORLD FUNERAL - REGAIN/THE END
When Marduk launches into one of its near-incessant fast songs - that's faaaaast to the laymen out there - absolutely nothing can touch the Swedes. World Funeral is more than a mere title. It is a mission statement which backs up its statement with music befitting any sordid name it wishes to grant its albums. Song after song on World Funeral detonates around the listener. Exemplary instances are the ultra-sonic might of With Satan And Victorious Weapons and Cloven Hoof. Even the weaker songs, which typically are the slower ones, are dressed with such wonderful lyrics that one easily lets the song's comparative weakness become absorbed by the lyrical disposition. There certainly are a couple of English grammar and spelling faux pas scattered throughout the lyric sheet, but how can one beat lines like 'Your corpse is as beautiful/As the dawn when it comes with first sunray - But it was your peeled bleached bones/that really blew my mind?' A new element not hitherto immediately recognizable in Marduk is the wonderfully distorted bass which adds that much more to the band's assault. Furthermore, the fast, raging solos on songs like the title track or the aforementioned With Satan And Victorious Weapons shred with supreme destructive majesty. Night Of The Long Knives is an impressive song showcasing the band's compositional aptitude. Even new drummer Emil Dragutinovic must be possessed by Satan to pummel his kit with such reckless abandon. The man makes minced meat out of drum machines everywhere.
Marduk's only competition is itself. This is a contest the band wins every time by becoming faster, heavier, tighter and slicker year after year. - Ali "The Metallian"

MARDUK - PLAGUE ANGEL - CANDLELIGHT
The time has come for a new Marduk opus and with 2005's release being dubbed Plague Angel one knows that the Swedish war mongers have lost none of their intensity. Indeed, the album follows an introduction with blasting power and it quickly becomes obvious that the addition of two new members into the ranks has not restrained the coven's propensity to kick the listener's head off his shoulders. Slower moments do show up from time to time in order for the listener to catch his mortal breath, but Plague Angel is by and large a speed devotee's wet dream. The drums sing the praises of pestilent velocity, the guitar roar the roar of a jet engine to hell, the bass sounds distorted and angry and the vocals of newcomer Mortuus, while perhaps not deep enough, are depraved and offensive. Marduk, by now, is a well-oiled death machine and the standard-bearer for Swedish supremacy. - Ali "The Metallian"

MARDUK – WARSCHAU – REGAIN  
Not news: in the realm of black death metal Sweden’s Marduk is unmatched in terms of sheer face ripping madness. What is more interesting is how the Swedes, lead by guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson, has long reversed the time-honoured disgraceful behaviour whereby bands wimps out one or two albums into their respective careers. Warschau – itself a song on 2004’s Plague Angel album – marks the band’s fifteenth year of existence and is as ferocious and maniacal as ever.
This live set is also a restoration of belief in the band’s on-stage capabilities for me personally after being disappointed by what seemed a routine or by-the-numbers performance of the band’s older line-up on the Funeral Marches And Warsongs DVD a year earlier. Warschau takes advantage of the location in Warsaw, Poland and mixes the title with design and graphics relating to the city’s war history and Marduk’s addiction to destruction and panzers. How Morgan’s stated affinity with Nazism plays into this or the thinking of a Polish audience is interestingly curious.
Warschau introduces a couple of new members like singer Mortuus as up to the band’s standards and delivers its message like a round of tank fire. The emphasis is on the band’s more recent compositions, but older cuts like Panzer Division Marduk and The Black… are here too as is an uncanny strong sound for a live recording. – Ali “The Metallian”