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Marduk: World funeral

28/12/12 || BamaHammer

At the time “World funeral” was released, Marduk was considered by many (myself included) as a boring-ass band who was well on their way to being gently phased out of the realms of elite black metal bands and cast into the hopeless chasm of mediocrity and ultimately anonymity. They were coming off a pair of albums that simply failed to live up to their high standard of black metal excellence.

The first was 1999’s “Panzer division Marduk” which featured one of the most unbearably relentless and groove-less arrays of blastbeats ever crammed onto a single album. I honestly can’t even think about that album without getting a migraine. Then came 2001’s “La grande danse macabre” which is French for “the big Blümchen black metal”. It wasn’t necessarily terrible (it was a hell of a lot better than “Panzer kickdrum Marduk”), but it was just not interesting in the least and sounded like a forced and half-assed effort at trying to do something vastly different just for the sake of doing something different. It wasn’t even very unique. It just plodded along and offered nothing new or exciting. Marduk was slowly dying and gasping for what seemed like their final breath.

When “World funeral” arrived, I remember giving it a chance despite the band’s decline and this particular album’s crazy brightly colored cover. I had always enjoyed Marduk’s stuff, primarily because of the historical significance of the band and the way I felt forced to like them, but for some reason, I was genuinely excited to hear what they had to off this time around.

The album opener, “With Satan and Victorious Weapons”, begins with one of the most unintentionally hilarious and dumbass-est soundbites I can think of. It’s from the 1986 film “The name of the rose”, which 14 people have seen worldwide, and it goes a little something like this:

Dude 1: Because you were inspired by the devil?
Dude 2 with some thick accent: Yes…that’s it. I am inspired by the devil. I am…inspired…by de DEEEEEEE-vill [sounds of shit breaking, Marduk slays]

The opener is a blistering and very “Marduk”-sounding track. The guitars are viciously loud, and drums obliterate reality and Legion wrecks his larynx with monotonic yells about evil or some shit. However, after the final note of “With Satan…” ends, Marduk delivers one of the coolest curveballs in recent black metal history with the track “Bleached Bones”. After the apocalyptic insanity that was the openers, the second track is a slow, brooding, and plodding stomper of a track that’s groovy, catchy, and remains quite blackened and evil. The most impressive part about a track like (and putting second in the tracklist) that is that it showed that Marduk were not afraid to try something a little fresh.

The whole album is really just like that. It just exudes a welcome freshness that Marduk had been lacking since “Nightwing”. They still sound like the speedy, brutal Marduk that we all know and love, but they also showed on this album that they were ready to try some new things and attempt to do them well by peppering in a few interesting changes of pace just to enhance everything else. This isn’t the best Marduk has ever had to offer, but it’s a worthy addition to their discography. You never heard from Legion after this album for whatever reason, and I have a feeling that without this album, Marduk as a band just may have faded away into Bolivian, as Mike Tyson would say.

7,5

Information
Released: 2003
Label: Blooddawn
Website: www.marduk.nu
Band
Legion: vocals
Evil: guitars
Bogg: bass
Emil Dragutinovic: drums

Tracklist
01. With Satan and Victorious Weapons
02. Bleached Bones
03. Cloven Hoof
04. World Funeral
05. To the Death’s Head True
06. Castrum Doloris
07. Hearse
08. Night of the Long Knives
09. Bloodletting
010. Blessed Unholy
011. Blackcrowned

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