Customer Reviews

Nightwing

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Nightwing" is my personal favorite of the vast Marduk collection. Being their fifth studio full length, this band has grown substantially from their "Dark Endless" & "F*ck Me Jesus" releases of years past. Marduk has adopted one of the most extreme musical approaches available in music. "Nightwing" is divided into two chapters. The first is entirely grounded in lightning fast, souls scorching tempos. The drums reach inhuman velocities, as the blast beat art form is fully manifested throughout these frighteningly infernal compositions. The music speed and structure entrance the listener as Marduk blasts through furiously until the onslaught of chapter two, devoted strictly to the life & works of Vlad the Impaler. The blistering pace is greatly slowed as track 6, "dream of blood & iron" barbarically rages on. As the songs wear on, however, Marduk finds themselves returning to supersonic tempos during, "Dracul Wayda". The album concludes to a warmarch inspired "anno domini 1476" that tells the tale of Vlad's last courageous stand in defiance of treasonous men. "Nightwing" convinces the listener that Marduk is dead serious. The vocals are reminiscent of the black beat himself. Marduk has set a new standard for unholy black metal and provides a historical value as well! Buy this or die by their hands!

Marduk doesn't muck around with any of the usual Black Metal atmospheric nonsense like keyboards or choirs. What you're going to get from them is nothing but blistering Metal from start to finish, and that's exactly what `Nightwing' is.

Unlike many of their Norwegian counterparts, these mad Swedes aren't afraid of bass or decent production either. Let's face it, Necro Black Metal production is a method of covering poor musicianship and crap ideas. Marduk has nothing to hide and by having B. War's bass loud enough to be heard, it adds power to the guitar sound, really putting the Metal back into Black Metal.

On their early albums, Marduk often used blast beats as a cure all, to bridge parts of songs or to fill gaps when noting was happening. Yet, blast beats are conspicuous by their absence throughout this album.

`Nightwing' is divided into two chapters. The first chapter, titled "Dictionaire Infernal" is your typical "Here comes Satan, what a nice chap, all kneel and praise him. He'll lightly saute you for all eternity and you'll enjoy it, so go and do him a favour and knock off Jesus" type of story. It's been done before, and no doubt will be done again, but it's nice, safe standard Black Metal fare.

For some strange reason, the title track pops up between the two chapters, but isn't listed in the track listing. It's what you'd expect - hyperspeed Black Metal with vocals screeching about the vampire myth. Legion's vocals never progress much past a breathy monotone, but they really don't need to, basically just acting as the fourth instrument in the mix.

The second chapter is entitled "The Warlord Of Wallachia", and tackles the legend of Vlad Dracul and his bloodthirsty military campaign through Eastern Europe and into the Middle East during the 15th Century. The five tracks are a fairly basic narrative of events and Morgan Hakansson finally finds space for a guitar solo at the beginning of "Dreams Of Blood And Iron". The slowed tempo adds a militaristic feel to the song, like a medieval army marching to war. Adding to the variation, Legion even almost comes up with a vocal melody. Almost...

"Kaziklu Bey (The Lord Impaler)" picks up the pace again, telling of Vlad's terror campaign against the Turks. "Deme Quaden Thyrane" sounds almost like `Under The Sign Of The Black Mark' era Bathory in places, as Legion pulls off a fairly accurate Quorthon impersonation. Final track "Anno Domini 1476" uses a military snare drum beat and a simple guitar line, while the almost spoken vocals describe how "Dracul fought bravely but the twentieth Boyar would be his last kill/When the Turks found his body they cutted off his head". OK, so English isn't the band's first language, but overall this is an epic tale fairly well told.

`Nightwing' isn't a groundbreaking masterpiece, but it is certainly intense and more than competently executed. It is the sort of album to play to a non-believer who has perhaps been put off Black Metal by the likes of Cradle Of Filth or Dimmu Borgir, or even Darkthrone. While it's not grimness incarnate, `Nightwing' never loses its distinct Metal edge.

Nightwing is the best first Marduk album to buy. Music is very fast, vocals are reaping, and - surprise - there is a littlebit melody inside. This like Dimmu Borgir, but much blacker, faster, and for my opinion, better.

I have heard so much about this album before I bought it that I figured it would not live up to the hype. It honestly does though, I was really impressed. This was my first Marduk album and it blew me away. The speed is fantastic and the vocals sounded much better then many of this genre. The lyrics also surprised me, they were long and intelligent, also not too common for black metal. An excellent choice.

Struggling to breath after 10 graet black metal songs!! I've been listening to black metal for quite some time but this is awesome!!More variation than "Heaven shall burn..." and a nice story from Transylvania make it that way.3 very fast & agressive songs with satanic lyrics are followed up by some more variable speed songs.But they are all great! This is a must for all so called 'true' black metal fans(hate that name)Buy it !

Marduk hav become better and better the last years, in comparison to the albums they produced in the beginning of the band. Unfortunately, this album hasn't got so much musical ideas as Heaven shall burn..., and has lost some of their aggression. But nevertheless, it is a good album and will please every Marduk fan.

This is my favorite Marduk cd. Most loyal Marduk fans like Nightwing or Heaven Shall Burn....the best. Marduk has a huge black metal following, but they are not for everyone. If your taste is for PURE METAL, these are your guys. If you are a fan of Dimmu, Cradle,and the melodic/symphonic edge of metal this is DEFINETELY NOT FOR YOU.

Marduk has always been more interesting whilst playing slow as they seem to have some amazing ability to write killer slow tracks. By the above statement I'm not saying that their fast and furiously aggressive songs aren't any good, after all it's what these guys do. "Nightwing" is an assortment of the band's slowest songs and is divided into 2 parts. The 2nd part is the story of Vlad Tepes, more well known as Dracula. A weird think on this album is that they didn't include the title track on the track listing and that is very strange since "Nightwing" is one of the best songs they've ever written. All in all this a very good album and probably Marduk's best.

Nightwing is really not ordinary Black metal, there is something a lot more. Perhaps, guys from Marduk prettily combine a few styles. At least, you can hear a very fast, aggressive and highly melodic mixture of Black and Death styles. Guitar playing features catchy riffs and assertive music, as for vocal, it sounds better than bands of such genre usually have, cantillation is also infectious. My favourite themes are Bloodtide, Of Hells Fire, Nightwing, Dreams of Blood and Iron. An impressive stuff.

Music: Probably the fastest music known to man. It has very fast guitars and drums. Vocals: Growling, screaming and dark voices. Lyrics: Long and variety. Quotation from song #9: "Dracul would show the world how to correct, the Rumanians which lacked strength or showed disrespect. The following story is just one of many on Draculs way, to out wipe every opposer who didn't him blindly obey." Instruments: Guitars, bass and drums. Themes: The Dracul clan, Satanism and anti christianity.

I give it 4 stars because of a good album with blasting speed and well-written lyrics. Total time: 47 min.