Marduk

Warschau

Regain Records(Blooddawn Productions) 2007

First let it be clear I usually abhor live albums and will virtually never buy one if I can help it though there are the rare exceptions.  Which brings us to Regain records rerelease of the Warschau album which is a live set by the Swedish black metal masters from 2005 on their Deathmarch tour.  This album celebrates Marduk's 15th Anniversary with a special treat of the band at their most aggressive and brutal best.  The song selection for this set is superb and touches on all the hits from pretty much all the albums throughout their career.  Some of my personal favorites include Burn my Coffin (from Those of the Unlight), Slay the Nazarene (from Nightwing), To the Death's Head True (from World Funeral) and Panzer Division Marduk (from the album of the same title).  Even Dark Endless makes an appearance here with the performance of The Black... in a less death metal form of course.   But I think it is best that they close with their all time classic Wolves as well as playing my personal favorite song On Darkened Wings with its semi-melodic riffing and unmistakable bass guitar breaks.  The sound quality is also nearly flawless for a live album with only a hint of the tinny quality of the instruments that most live albums suffer from.  But this is minimal and does not detract from the listening experience one iota.  Also the vocals don't over power the rest of the instruments as they do on a lot of live albums.  There is some crowd noise that is audible between the songs which adds to the atmosphere of the album especially at the end when the entire crowd can be heard chanting "Marduk" before the band comes back out for their encore of Wolves.  Warchau is a success in that it is a great representation of a masterful band displaying their supreme talent within the live environment as well as a cross section of Marduk's long and illustrious career.