The big guns are keen to get blazing at the start of 2015 and Marduk are quick off the mark to fire it up with studio album number 13. Its thematically a return to the trenches as well, citing their most potent album Panzer Division Marduk 1999 but focussing more on the very frontline, the ragged bastard scum who were mere cannon fodder and the first to fall in battle, the Frontschwein; pigs who were sent out to clear the path and the first to drop in a veritable hail of bullets. The Swedes newest album hits you like a Sven Hassel book, there is plenty of death but very little glory to be found here as far as any narrative is concerned, although musically as soon as the first title track literally furrows in you can expect plenty of guts.
It’s fast, furious and utterly relentless after the opening wind-milling guitar signature melodically tightens and the drums build up, cataclysm is completely unleashed. Fredrik’s drumming is utterly destructive and the blast beats could hardly be any faster. Helming the charge though is Mortuus whose vocals harangue and rasp their way into things with explosive consistency. Words like “blood” and “victory” can be made out and if ever you needed something to spur you into a near futile attack this track will do the job. Just as you are used to the flailing barbed guitar work it downs tools at slightly over the three minute mark, all that remains are ruins. Well luckily not as there are still another ten tracks to go such as the mid paced heavy crunching march of ‘The Blond Beast.’ You can envision an Aryan general here telling the scum that it’s the battlefield or the hangman’s noose awaiting them if they even think about deserting. It’s a pretty grim number with an air of death about it as it sombrely plods remorselessly away, crushing under its weight. Next we are off to the desert with the ‘Afrika’ Korps to be hammered and blasted in unrelenting heat. It’s another hugely fast number with Mortuus really coming across with a mad zealousness as he screams out the song title with a seemingly crazed red mist over his eyes. It’s one of the definite stand out tracks here. By now seasoned Marduk acolytes of the last few albums should be realising that the formula of one utter blitzkrieg of a track is being followed by a slower but no less hefty one here. It has worked well in the past and it does so here too and kind of makes the really destructive ones all the more ferocious and numbers like ‘Wartherland’ all the more grimly atmospheric.
Bullets literally fly as they steam into ‘Rope Of Regret.’ It could well be the execution squad in action, I am pretty sure each and every track here has been researched and has specific meaning here. Morgan is no slouch when it comes to doing things properly and this is as driven as ever, his guitar work jagged and thorny enveloping the thick barbarity with a great sense of melody no matter how fast they fire things out. Of the slower numbers Nebelwerfer is gloriously horrible and sends a shiver down the spine every time I hear it. The thick cloying melody lingers like burned remains tossed up by the smoke mortar the track takes name from and Mortuus really allows his eccentric delivery to flourish here as he theatrically and austerely preaches away like death incarnate. Ugh! After this it’s all fury as the French town of ‘Falaise’ is literally torn asunder in ‘A Cauldron Of Blood.’ Whereas most of the tracks are kept reigned in the longest ‘Doomsday Elite’ is given a bit more time to flow. Eerie chilling sampled voices and thorny guitars install a sense of dread and doom before drums hammer in and thud away and there’s a feel of the epic about this as it uncoils and expands bringing both the mid-speed crush and heavy bombardment into the one number. I am guessing 503 refers to the German tiger tank battalion (who says metal is not for learning) and sees a return to the metal coffins in that respect. Drumming crunches like broken bones being run over, snares clash and there’s some gnarly vocal roars as this one trundles over us with unrelenting and unstoppable stealth. The final assault is possibly the fastest song ever by the band and ‘Thousand-Fold Death’ is utterly rabid with the vocals and everything else literally going like the clappers. I can’t wait to witness this one live it’s going to leave absolutely nobody standing. Apparently if you get the media book edition there is ‘Warschau III Necropolis’ arranged with martial industrialists Ardati as a bonus and although not on my review download I can fully anticipate it and shall be ordering.
Although perhaps not offering anything unexpected and why should they, Marduk have further consolidated their position as the elite corps of black metal here and the more I have played Fronstshwein the more its individual tracks have entrenched (no pun intended) themselves upon me. I’m not saying it’s their best album and cannot say how well it is going to be remembered come the end of the year but it’s a cracking start to it from these ever reliable, seasoned battlers.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply