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Marduk had never much impressed me in the past – they were pretty much just a blur of hyper-speed Black metal noise – but with their 9th full-length CD I have to say they have managed to impress me. I don't know if this will win back the fans who didn't like "La Grande Danse Macabre", but I am certainly going to have to re-evaluate this band.

A lot of the time, when BM bands evolve, they turn into either gothic bands or Death Metal, and this is pretty deathy. I would say this is not as crossover as Behemoth's last disc, but somewhere in between, almost perfectly on the border between death and Black Metal, favoring the black just a tad. If I had to use one word to describe this, it would be 'fast' – this is a Marduk CD after all - but on this CD they have managed to insert some dynamic into their sound without sacrificing an iota of brutality. Plus there are some really, really cool riffs on here. After a short soundclip from "Name Of The Rose" ("I was inspired by the Deeeeeevvviiiiilllll!") the album opens up in furious style with the awesome main riff of "With Satan And Victorious Weapons", followed by the slower, almost doomy "Bleached Bones" with another great riff. None of the rest of the songs (with the possible exception of "Night Of The Long Knives") is quite as cool as these first two, but none of them even remotely suck. The production (done at Abyss Studios) adds just the right touch of ultra-heaviness and really does a lot to help out the proceedings. The most surprising cut is "Castrum Doloris" – a Death/Black version of the venerable Swedish poem "Epistle No. 81".

So this is not exactly Black Metal, and does not quite scratch the Black Metal itch, but for crossover Death/Black Metal this is just first rate: fast, heavy, and malevolent. With the persistent speed and the rather short songs I can already hear the 'Norsecore' accusations coming, but if this is norsecore, sign me up. Sure I would like it if the riffing were a little more complex and the music had a bit more atmosphere, but there are plenty of other bands to do that stuff. And if this is what Marduk want to do, I sure hope they can keep doing it this well.