Marduk became one of the marquee names in black metal, both within, and outside of Sweden thanks to a relentless touring schedule and a release list that is longer than most within the scene. They deliver low-fi blasts of black metal extremity with a typical anti-Christian message, or a knack for "warfare metal." This current album sticks to the well formed and well established formula which yields a solid, yet unremarkable, black metal album.
The album starts off well meaning enough with the title track Frontschwein. The intro is a interesting rolling high end riff that is played over a military-esc drum roll. However, this gives way to blast beats and low-fi black metal mayhem, which I understand might do it for some, but the faults of this song quickly become the faults of the album; the fuzz begins to melt together. The following track The Blond Beast has a much better groove and some well polished, searing guitar work. But man I hope you like hats, because they are so high in the mix here, it is almost overpowering.
Rope of Regret opens with a sample of a machine gun, which is then translated into a staccato drum pattern that echos the rhythm from the sample. However, once again, from there it becomes "standard fare" without a hook or anything to make it a memorable track. Although, the aggression is a paramount feature.
The down tempo intro to Nebelwerfer and the pained delivery of the vocals are probably my favourite moment of this album, and one of the few instances the album allows itself to stand out from an otherwise formulaic approach to the music and the genre. The track is full of doom motifs and is dripping with mood. Even the snare, which sits probably a little high in the mix for my tastes, does not put me off this track. The following track Falaise: Cauldron of Blood is a track that echoes The Blond Beast, another track with a solid groove to break up the standard black metal formula.
The Doomsday Elite may have served the album better as the opener. The tracks intro is moody and oppressive, the blast beat drums being filtered and dampened down in furiousity and power. I believe this would have served as a great hook to get people to sink into the album. Eventually, and perhaps somewhat predictably, the song comes away from its restraints and follows the same path as the rest of the songs on the album, which I feel is a shame considering it opened with such a promising tone.
All in all, I found this album to be rather uninspiring! If you are looking for old school black metal, with a heavy dose of low-fi goodness, then it might be for you. But even then I think you would be better served spending your money elsewhere. For me, the main problem of the album was that it offered no "feeling", none of the songs seemed to have any emotion or mood, in fact there was almost no human presence here at all. I find this surprising, at least on a personal level, because for me black metal is one of the more "emotion/mood rich" genres there is. Sadly, this album is almost devoid of any.
Article by Gary Lee (@thewheelbear)
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