Thank you to Kyle for presenting me the privilege to review this masterwork.

We’re all guilty of it. We discover bands (or at least begin listening to them regularly after years of prior knowledge) who have been around for a number of years and start at the edge of their recent discographies. In this regard, we should always appreciate and reach back to the bands earlier works to build a foundation of what makes them unique or powerful. I did this as I had mentioned in the forum with Kreator. I had significant knowledge of the band and have taken place in many well versed discussions regarding the German Thrash outfit, but I had yet to check out Coma of Souls and Terrible Certainty. With the current band under speculation, I purchased Wormwood, World Funeral, and Panzer Division. I never paid any attention to the cavalcade of classics early Marduk had to offer. Of course I had heard great things, but for a long, long time in the past few years I have been more into the Ukrainian and Cascadian scenes (especially since finding out that I’m only 87.5% Italian and 12.5% Ukrainian) and less into the maximum violence that the Scandinavian scene brings forth. Marduk of Sweden have long been known as the audibly heaviest of all Black Metal bands. Over the years Sweden has produced some excellent bands in the genre, with melodic sounds achieved by the likes of Dissection along with the rawness and technicality of the skillful Watain. While Marduk are very talented and their songwriting brings them to a high echelon in my books, what makes them unique is their approach. Marduk are well known for writing Black Metal in the pentameter of Death Metal.

Marduk are one of the only bands I can listen to on a regular basis whose entire discography is 80-90% blast beats. Bands like Belphegor (see my Lucifer Incestus review) bore the crap out of me eventually. At least Marduk squeeze in slower and more thoughtful pieces amidst the barrage such as Bleached Bones on World Funeral.

While anyone can strum a guitar or blast a drum kit without sounding in their own, vocals are different story. Our voices are like our fingerprint. While Af Gravf runs the vox on Opus Nocturne, this masterpiece of early Swedish Black Metal, the primary vocalists identifiable with Marduk are Legion and now Mortuus. Look up a video on Youtube with Mortuus on vocals and you will see a typical online flame war akin to Nightwish fanboys bickering over Tarja vs. Annette. And by the way, if you want my stance on that, I think Tarja is more talented, but Annette is fine and her lesser skill is more than made up for by Tarja’s bitch attitude. While Legion is your prototypical skilled and efficient Black Metal vocalist, Mortuus is much more unique in the sense that not only does he have that “tortured” feel to his vocals, but he sounds as if he was spawned by the 9th ring of Hell. He truly has some frightening skills.

Immediately during the dawn of the first song on Opus Nocturne, Sulfur Souls, it becomes noticeable that even at an early stage in their careers Marduk excelled at what I call a “clean yet unrefined” sound. It reminds me of black coffee, in the sense that the caffeine rush and taste is unadulterated and prone to hyper madness, yet it still bears a smooth and brewed quality. Every instrument is at the forefront and immediately audible, and the sound quality is excellent, yet it is still more than raw enough for those of us who appreciate the grittiness of true Scandinavian Black Metal.

Before I even proceed, let me mention how fucking awesome the cover art is. As an appreciator of many forms of art, I can truly enjoy the cover art on Opus Nocturne. I am pretty sure there is more than one cover and they are all fantastic. As an Italian American it is kind of a prerequisite to appreciate art, much like garlic and red wine, and I find it safe to say that my taste in music merges with my love of the visual arts, as I would much rather observe a Carvaggio piece before the Sistine Chapel, and I’d rather watch Red Dragon before a romantic comedy. That being said, From Subterranean Throne and Autumnal Reaper are both heavy as Hell outstanding tracks. They blend well with Sulphur Souls, yet do not create that one song feel that so many Black Metal albums have when they reach a level of aural ambiguity. This all changes when the mid placed and atmospheric Materialized in Stone heads forth as track 5 and the fourth musical track after the spooky intro. I would not call this a groovy track per say, but I would call it a solid melodic mid paced track. One thing that differentiates early Marduk specifically on Opus Nocturne from their more recent works is that they tend to have melodic leads and even riffs rooted in melody instead of aggression. Nowadays, since the days of Panzer Division, most of their lead work is shredding and fast instead of provocative and meaningful. This does not take away from Marduk’s achievements as a recently productive act, as I have thoroughly enjoyed both sides to the band, but this early effort seems to be a different band pre-evolution.

Untrodden Paths (Wolves Pt 2 ) is another brutal track which is outstanding but it pales in comparison to one of the most melodic tracks in Marduk’s entire discography. There are keys and synths throughout the album which the Encyclopedia Metallum article gives no credit to, but they are more than present on the title track. Melancholy has never been an emotion Marduk have searched for. But on the title track a depressive riff introduces clean spoken vocals. I am not sure who performed these, but this song presents a Marduk unlike the black winged beast we are so used to. This thematic continues all the way through the first minute plus of the second to last track, Deme Quayden Thyrane. I have no idea what language this could be in. It certainly doesn’t appear Swedish, and while the name Marduk is a Babylonian Sky God, I do not see it consistent with Babylonian as Morbid Angel have a few Babylonian titles not anywhere near the linguistic nature of this track. While this is another strong outing, the real masterwork comes with the violent finale, The Sun has Failed. This song winds its way through a trail of destruction and simultaneous stimulation of intrigue unlike many Marduk songs. This is one of their longest songs at 7:20.

While I mentioned many times that this is a different Marduk than that of their 21st Century offerings, in no way am I insinuating that Marduk have declined at all like many wish to believe. Sure, nothing save for maybe World Funeral can reach the feats of such early opuses, but Marduk continue to soldier on in the most violent, brutal way possible. This is a true, unadulterated classic achievement. Something that every Black Metal fan should adore, whether its Cascadian, US, Scandinavian, or Slavic BM that you focus your energy on, Opus Nocturne is just dying to corrode your boom box.