optisailor2002 Despite having many fans welcoming Mortuus' entry into Marduk in 2004, the influences that he has brought with him into the songwriting of the band has been rather a bit of a bittersweet experience personally. While I like the increased intensity that he has brought in, with his powerful vocals, the band also seemed to take a slightly altered route, with albums like Rom 5:12 and Wormwood containing some of the band's slowest songs to date, which could have been intended to display the band's growth, only ended up boring me. So when the band announced the release of a new EP in 2011, I didn't have much high expectations, fearing the inclusion of yet another 3 boring tracks, but looking at the short track lengths gave me some sense of hope, with any fears of a boring song being limited to at most a short 5 minute.

Fortunately though, Iron Dawn does not disappoint. Warschau 2: Headhunter Halfmoon opens with sounds of a war siren, in line with the band's constant themes of death and war throughout their discography, and marks a step in the right direction. And it does not take long for the song to begin proper, and the listener is thrown into a myriad of chaos and destruction, as Marduk batters the listener relentlessly, showing the listener what classic Marduk should sound like, with the large sounding guitar tone of Evil and the hard-hitting blast beats of drummer Lars. Mortuus' vocals here is more tortured than ever, and unlike previous releases, Mortuus' vocals register a slightly higher pitch over here, and this helps in making the music all the more impactful as it hits the listeners hard in the guts. The constantly wailing siren at the background also helps to keep up the destructive atmosphere and mood that the band has conjured, and further brings out and emphasises the violence in Marduk's music. Second track Wacht Am Rhein: Drumbeats of Death certainly lives up to its name, with Lars hitting the skins relentlessly, at an almost inhuman speed.

The first 2 tracks on this 3-track EP are no-nonsense, straightforward blasting black metal tracks that gives listeners little time to breathe, while the third and final track, Prochorovka: Blood and Sunflowers sees the band taking a slowdown (just like the slower material on the previous 2 albums), Don't be fooled by the somewhat slightly optimistic songtitle though, as the song presents an even darker side of Marduk, with the band opting to crush the listeners under the ominous and heavy atmosphere on this track. And while I would have loved to complain about how this track bored me out, it is hard to deny the impact and damage that the first 2 tracks have caused, making this third, slow track a somewhat welcome one, driven by slow and heavy riffing. The slight disappointment after the album ends then, would come in the form of the band releasing a statement mentioning how the upcoming full length will be of a different concept from the material on Iron Dawn. Until then, one can only hope that this does not mean further disappointment.

Originally written for http://www.heavymetaltribune.com/

UMUR "Dark Endless" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal (later black metal) act Marduk. The album was released through Fashion Records in December 1992. By the end of 1992 the Swedish old school death metal scene had already produced quite a few of the albums, that we today consider "classics" in the genre (acts like Carnage, Entombed, Grave and Dismember were some of the leaders on that scene), but another Swedish death metal movement was also about to emerge.

...while Marduk today is a full fledged black metal act, they started life as a death metal act. Drawing influences from the traditional old school Swedish death metal sound, but with the twist that they added a blackened element. "Dark Endless" is probably one of the earliest examples of a blackened Swedish death metal album. Albums like "The Nocturnal Silence (1993)" by Necrophobic and "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead (1993)" by Unanimated would soon follow though and I think it´s valid to talk about a blackened sub-genre to the old school Swedish death metal sound. The imagery and the lyrics are anti-Christian/occult themed and the growling vocals are very high pitched and aggressive rather than deep and brutal. Especially the latter provides a blackened edge to the music that not many other Swedish acts had at the time. The sound production is also in fat and brutal death metal territories rather than in thin lo-fi black metal ditto.

"Dark Endless" isn´t the most successful release in the genre (I´d recommend the above mentioned Necrophobic album any day) and not the most well performed, well produced or well written either, but there is a historical importance to the album that shouldn´t be forgotten. However even with that dimension in mind I can´t give more than a 3 (60%) rating.

The T 666 "Panzer Division Marduk" is one of the most violent, noisy, relentless albums that have ever been recorded. If black metal has never been the mainstream media's dearest metal genre, this particular disc is problematic even for actual black metal fans.

The nature of the problem lies in the fact that MARDUK, when creating "Panzer Division Marduk", decided to play their songs at the fastest possible speeds, generating a record that, even for black metal standards, is quite difficult to listen. None of the typical atmosphere of the genre is here. The melody that tremolo riffs usually have has been put aside in favor of the simplest of attacks. What has emerged from MARDUK's rotten womb is an aberration of metal that, at some curious level, works.

Yes, at times, surprisingly, it works. This album requires the listener to be in a special mood to be enjoyed. This record can't just be picked and put to play in a stereo at any random moment. One has to feel ready to withstand the aggression. One has to be willing to suffer a little bit of ear hemorrhage in order to make the most out of "Panzer Division Marduk". The music is extremely violent, even insanely so. There's little of the melancholic darkness and the feel of isolation and longing that black metal usually portrays. Here, black metal has been stripped down to its very basics: unchanged rhythm (blast beats of hell, literally, played at tempos quite impossible to describe), crude, rudimentary harmony (where's the bass guitar anyway?), tremolo-riffs consisting of two-three notes with elementary intervals (at times it seems they're playing the same thing over and over again), and high-pitched guttural vocals screamed with no sense of timing other than the most basic one. If one's in a mood when these kind of things are inviting, when one feels like ready to have violence being painted in one's eardrums with the harshest and loudest of brushes, this album could be quite satisfying. Of course, such a moment won't occur too often. That's why this album is not for everyone, nor is it for every time.

This is certainly no EMPEROR, no IMMORTAL, no DARKTHRONE,this is not even the MARDUK of "Opus Nocturne" or "Those of the Unlight". This isn't typical black metal. This is its ugliest, most radical variation. This album cries for blood, like hordes of panzer tanks plodding over a desolated terrain before destroying, obliterating the enemy.

But from time to time, I repeat, this album works.

Just be careful. Hear at your own risk. Try it when you know you're ready.