I have always had controversial view over Black Metal until I finally realized it's not a genre per se, but more a collection of different Black metals. There's the speed/thrash bands with satanic lyrics from the 80's, there's the crude, evil Black Metal of some of the early Norwegian bands such as DARK THRONE, VON or FESTER, totally extinct in Norway but living on with a new soul in the States, and there's the mainstream Black Metal with those clownish corpse paint, witchlike vocals and guitars tuned to sound like a mosquito buzz, which has several variants into gothic and paganism. Fact is only 2% of the Black Metal bands this day actually raise some interest at all into me. But despite their following, MARDUK is still a killer Black War Metal band, while their approach to the concepts of warfare is not as spiritual and articulate as that of ANGELCORPSE, they are a straight as a fuck missile in the ass of Christ. I'll not indulge through details to facet their style, but they're definitely unique. Blindingly fast, with lacerating screams and a charge of utter violence that's really charming… where the band has lack anyway, is their live shows, which lately dismantled all the images I created on this band. They act as fucking rock stars, the singer wears sunglasses on the stage and behave as if they were fucking KISS (and that stupid custom of wearing closn makeup doesn't help anyway). Horns and smiles ruin all the mood their wall of sound creates, to the point I have even seen them doing the "human train" on the stage. I'll avoid another MARDUK show at all costs, but stick to their fucking great releases.

 

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