With the opening screams of "Nowhere, No-One, Nothing", the latest release from Swedish black metal juggernauts Marduk kicks off with the expected frenzy that one would anticipate from these veterans. However, as you begin to make your way through Wormwood, it becomes quickly apparent that the days of Panzer Division Marduk, 'the hyper-blast, full-on speed assault' that Marduk displayed throughout much of their mid-period, is long gone. Check out the thrilling "This Fleshly Void" for an example of the new and improved Marduk, a slow, sludge ridden extreme metal feast filled with crushing guitar riffs, pounding drums, tortured vocals, and droning synths, completely out of left field for this band, and it works. This was a process that sort of started on their last release Rom 5:12, a really varied album that saw the band veer off into many different styles of black metal, which continues here on Wormwood.
Fear not though, there's still plenty of furious, maniacal black metal here as only Marduk can deliver. Check out the raging "Unclosing The Curse", complete with Morgan's tasty tremelo picked riffs, thunderous blast beats, and some uncanny vocals from Mortuus, who really shows his range of ferocious styles throughout this CD. There is also the crazed "Into Utter Madness", a brutal old-school styled black metal gem, and the nightmarish vision that is "Phosphorous Redeemer", the latter opening with some creepy sound effects and vocalizations from Mortuus before morphing into an epic, furious battalion of black metal bombast, Morgan's raging riffs combating intricate blasts and thunderous bass. This is a grand, majestic, and brutal as black metal gets folks.
More of the sludgy, black/death/doom metal hybrid appears on "To Redirect Perdition", a real agonizing, tortured piece that again allows Mortuus to give his all over ponderous riffs and blasts, while the numbers "Whorecrown" and "Chorus Of Cracking Necks" deliver relentless, brutal black metal with all the trimmings. Throughout Wormwood, Marduk prove that Rom 5:12 was no fluke, and that they can deliver an inspired and varied form of black metal that's just as extreme as anything they've ever recorded, but that keeps you guessing from track to track rather than a CD full of songs that are hard to distinguish from each other, which they've been guilty of from time to time in the past. Good stuff here-check it out.
Track Listing
01. Nowhere, No-One, Nothing
02. Funeral Dawn
03. This Fleshly Void
04. Unclosing The Curse
05. Into Utter Madness
06. Phosphorous Redeemer
07. To Redirect Perdition
08. Whorecrown
09. Chorus Of Cracking Necks
10. As A Garment
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