Artist: MARDUK
Album: PLAGUE ANGEL (CD)

Release date: 2004
Media type: CD

A year after the release of World Funeral, Marduk has Plague Angel ready for the ever dying fans who can’t have enough Marduk. Plague Angel introduces the new frontman Mortuus (not to be confused with Mortiis,) previously a member of Funeral Mist and Triumphator under the alias Arioch. Marduk recorded Plague Angel in Endarker Studios with Marduk producing and with Devo Andersson co-producing.

The album will be released in Europe on November 22nd and since no-one as of yet has picked up the North American release of the album at the time of this review, we may not see the album for at least a couple weeks after the European release, if it is picked up. It better be, I don’t think anyone wants to spend $45.00 on a overseas album when it can be released here, since every other Marduk album has been. I’m sure we don’t have to worry, but keep watching the Marduk site for the latest news.

A video for “Throne Of Rats” is being produced at the moment, and we have been told it is a morbid masterpiece and a tribute to death and war. Awesome. With this, Marduk will embark on a massive world tour starting December 2004, dubbed Deathmarch 2004/2005. We have yet to receive tour dates, but they will be posted as soon as they are released.

With Legion out of the picture and Mortuus taking over, there is very little difference in the band, or vocals for that matter. But most Marduk fans would, or should, know that it is Morgan who writes all of the music, including vocals (may be incorrect with the vocals, but that I have been told and am aware of, he does write them) for basically everything Marduk releases. This is nice to keep things consistent, of course input would be given I assume when in the writing process, so it wouldn’t exactly be a ‘fuck you, do this’ type thing.

Though Marduk is pretty consistent with their sound, meaning Plague Angel, is complete brutality, of course. Now, Marduk has been around since 1990, and has about… 8 or so releases, but that doesn’t mean a band can’t still evolve. It seems though with every release, they become a little more extreme with their message. I mean, ‘Christraping Black Metal’ can’t really be topped, being my favorite Marduk song and album since it’s release, but even still – this albums eighth track, ‘Warschau’ in particular really comes close replacing it.

As one would expect, this album is Christraping Black Metal at it’s finest. Marduk had ‘Bleached Bones’ On World Funeral, which kind of took us by surprise, and to go with the flow, Plague Angel has ‘Seven Angles, Seven Trumpets’, ‘Perish In Flames’ and ‘Deathmarch’ which seems to be spawned from that same style of songwriting.

Marduk has had a long history, and I cannot give all of their demonic details in just one review. However, They do have a timeline on their site [link beside cover image above] which basically starts from 1990 when Morgan started the band with the desire to create the most brutal and blasphemous metal act ever to the release of their 2002 album, World Funeral. I’m sure once the album is released in full, new information will be added, such as the removal of vocalist Legion and the addition of Mortuus.

I think, for at least the last 5 years, Marduk has been releasing some great material, and will continue doing so, until they are dead most likely. This is again another solid release for Marduk, comparable to World Funeral, and in my humble opinion, is slightly better even.

TRACKLIST:

01 The Hangman Of Prague
02 Throne Of Rats
03 Seven Angels, Seven Trumpets
04 Life's Emblem
05 Steel Inferno
06 Perish In Flames
07 Holy Blood, Holy Grail
08 Warschau
09 Deathmarch
10 Everything Bleeds
11 Blutrache

LINE-UP:

Mortuus - vocals
Morgan - guitars
Magnus Devo Andersson - bass
Emil Dragutinovic - drums