Marduk - Rom 5:12(Regain)

Mon 6th Aug, 2007 in Music Reviews

Well, this album proves Marduk’s ability to keep mixing things up. After the huge successes of Plague Angel and others — perhaps most notably Panzer Division Marduk — one would almost expect the band to have hit a peak and be on the way down. Not so. In fact, some have argued that this is the band’s greatest moment yet. Joakim is back on deck for Cold Mouth Prayer of this album, the band’s tenth, which is a fitting way to round out a decade of recordings, a blast from the past that works really well. In addition, Adam of Primordial adds another element to Accuser/Opposer, and the collaboration with Italy’s Arditi on 1651 right in the middle of the album is dark, and brooding.

Some of the best tracks on this album for me are Womb of Perishableness, a track that starts to sit back on its laurels and get slower before kicking furiously into gear again; and Imago Mortis for the vocal reverb and delay that fills up the backdrop of the music, adding enormously to its darkness. But by far my favourite is Through the Belly of Damnation which showcases what we’ve come to know, love, and expect from Marduk. And the title, which is a reference to the biblical Romans 5, which talks about how death entered the mortal world, reflects the fact that the whole album is in fact steeped in that chapter of the bible – and yet, it’s not exactly a concept album.

This album is fast, furious, and militaristic, pounding forth on a mission to blast you out of your seat. However, it is almost catchy, and features a whole swathe of mid-paced riffs and beats. Slower tracks vary the interest of Rom 5:12. The recording is dark and brooding, militaristic and hesitant. This album is, like most black metal, best listened to very loudly. While some bands tend to think that a relentless blast beat is the only way to make a black metal album, Marduk have managed to create an intense album that is not just blast beats from beginning to end. Their ability to do this, to blast us away and keep us interested, their ability to evolve and not lose sight of where they’ve come from, is perhaps why they are still at the forefront of the genre.