Customer Reviews

Wormwood

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not a huge fan of Legion era Marduk, I prefer the new lineup. This is a back to basics album. It's very raw, but well recorded. The drums sound like real drums, the vocals are loud and harsh, the guitars are live-like. I'm sure everyone has their own preference of which era of Marduk they like best. If you are one of those who like the last two releases then you'll definitely dig this one as well.

This is the newest masterwork from Black Metal act Marduk. This band never stops amazing me, every album sounds fresh, raw, natural, brutal and has outstanding musicianship. This new album is no exception to awesome pure Black Metal. For Black Metal fans everywhere and naturally Marduk fan's like myself this album is a must! \m/\m/

If you are an old school Marduk fan or checking them out for the first time this is the album to get. It has the slow evil songs and the full out blasting destruction songs. The dark melodic song Funeral Dawn is my favorite Marduk song now. Marduk continues to impress me after all these years. If you love black metal or just plain metal this is definitely an album you should check out.

Play it loud with the windows open to scare all the white-bread sucking ingrats who live close by. Brutal album, as evil as satan's worst fart, love it.

This album is simply amazing. The pain that Marduk is trying to demonstrate comes across extremely well on this release. Mortuus's vocals are probably the best that he has put on a Marduk album and is easily becoming the best vocalist the band has had.

The best thing about this album, though, is the fact that it is still black metal but it experiments a lot more than they have done in the past. Funeral Dawn, Unclosing the Curse and As A Garment really give a feel that different than Marduk material previously released. There is a lot more than just the normal blast of black metal on this album compared to Nightwing and Panzer Division Marduk, this album puts several different atmospheres forward that were not present previously. I think this may be their best release to date.

As many of you likely realized (and if you are fans of Funeral Mist), this album has a sound not all too dissimilar from Maranatha. I am certainly not the first to point this out - there are some great interviews online with Mortuus regarding this subject. The album has gritty guitar, amazing musicianship, and a good balance between fast and slow. For me, the highlight has to be the song 'Whorecrown', which melds a melodic theme with sheer brutality. I get the sense that Morgan is letting Mortuus get more involved with the song-writing. Maranatha is an absolutely sick album and Marduk is clearly evolving into that direction. But like anything else they have done, the next album will vastly different. As long as they create another great song with the mainman from Primordial, I am on board with these guys. 5 stars.

I had some of Marduk's previous albums and I wasn't that impressed. I listened to them but they didn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary. I thought I'd give them a shot again and I was blown away. This cd flat out rips. The guitars are great and the bass player just rumbles like a freight train. Too many black metal bands have the bass way down in the mix but this is perfect. The new vocalist is very good as well. If you didn't like Marduk's old stuff give this cd a listen. You will most likely change your mind!

This is a Marduk album, no questions about it. While not a paint-by-numbers effort, it does sound very familiar...though there are some ghastly secrets hidden behind the expected formula! From the get-go, this is super-high quality hideousness, as we've come to expect from this incarnation of Marduk; this album does not really have any "filler" or any songs that seem to drag on too long (as several of their albums are guilty of); the whole thing seems to go by rather quickly and urges one to play it again. There are some unexpectedly grandiose moments in several songs, where a triumphal guitar MELODY/riff intrudes in the miasma of chainsawing ("Into Utter Madness" and "Whorecrown" most notably, although the latter has an ongoing dissonance which perhaps heightens the impact of the melody when it arrives); that is a new facet we are introduced to with "Wormwood"--- melody(although Marduk HAS had instances of it througout their catalogue)! Don't be shocked, however...Morgan manages to keep it extremely morbid and well-fitting within the context of Marduk's usual whirlwinds of doom. Another sonic addition is the very audible (and integral to many songs) BASS, which is remarkable in the world of Black MeTal(perhaps having something to do with Devo's hand in the production of the album?)! This album has a crisp, crackling sound with very dark undertones...in my opinion, it has the best production of the Mortuus-era albums; not widely different, but noticeable. Speaking of Mortuus, his vocals hit another plateau of excellence, with some impossibly weird noises being introduced to Marduk's sound (getting closer to his work in Funeral Mist, but not that maniacally over-the-edge). There is a bit of an "experimental" song("Unclosing the Curse"), or perhaps an "interlude", if you prefer. It is suitably creepy, and not really annoying like some other bands' similar type of devices the break up albums' flow(nothing at all like 1349's failed experiment of earlier this year). There is even a creeping, slow song (which is seasoned with some of Morgan's guitar melodies, used as a recurring motif), the aptly-titled "Funeral Dawn". My favourite track on here is "A Chorus of Cracking Necks", with it's snazzy sing-along chorus(ha ha ha!), complete with sickening sound effects! Oddly, the main early riff of "Into Utter Madness" is similar to one of the main riffs in "Cracking Necks". I must mention the spectacular booklet with some EXTREMELY disturbing artwork/photos (where do they keep digging these up?)! "Wormwood" is a masterpiece of Black MeTal, perfectly (de)composed, paced, and performed...a MUST for any fan of Marduk, and an excellent example of what BM should be(also,it includes the best use of fly-buzzing I've ever heard)!

To all the black/death metal fans, I apoligize, but I do not get it. I have gone from album to album, clip to clip and it all sounds the same. I love music, and have some death metal in my collection (Cradle of Filth, Morbid Angel,God Dethroned etc...)but even a hard style like this is becoming commercialized. Fast riffs, same drum beats, and I could trade the growling singers from group to group and would never notice. Go back to the pioneers of this genre and you will see what I am talking about, you can actually pick out the groups by the music and singers. This seems like a total waste of money. As Alice Cooper said about new music,(paraphrased) I get it, youre mad, but where is the song, where is the lyrical content.