Because I enjoyed the 'Favorite Enslaved' thread quite a bit, and Marduk, like Enslaved, have also released 14 full-lengths... And, also like them, have powered through many different phases (though perhaps not quite the stretch in range from roots to present-day) I'm curious what you like most.

I thought of this while listening to 'Those Of The Unlight', but I love modern-era Marduk as well as classic, and I think there are some wicked gems in the mid-era as well (ROM 5:12 and Wormwood come to mind)... So yes, a fairly diverse band who've never weakened in my estimation. What's their best work, in your opinion?

The only album I've listened to is Plague Angel which is a fucking killer album. I loved the doomy riffs and the super grim atmosphere. Do any other Marduk albums equal or even better it?

As much as I love most of the Mortuus-era output my all-time fav is still Opus Nocturne. That album just had a special vibe about it, the production was perfect for the songs and Joakim's vocals were akin to spitting venom and hatred.

For me, their best album is Those..., for it has the most engaged riffs/songwriting; the most "colourful" sounding of theirs, so to speak.
The most important one in my formative years was Heaven shall..., though. The immense amounts of hatred and contempt contained therein really supported me mentally whenever I was on my way to school.

Plague Angel is their beat IMO.

A solid discography all arround but i really hated Viktoria. That one just doesn't work for me.

I dont reckon this thread will get the same traction as the Enslaved one, Enslaved are just a much more varied band to discuss. Anyway...



Yeah, this is kind of how I feel. I haven't listened to the Mortuus era stuff a hell of a lot, and I suspect they became a better band through this era, but as it stands Heaven Shall Burn is the pinnacle of unrelenting brutality of Marduk that I am familiar with.

100% Opus Nocturne. Epic from start to finish, they never really sounded like this again.

simple as pie - Dark Endless... that creepy atmosphere, that genious cover art!!

I'm 100% with you on this one. it's the ultimate "classic" marduk album for me. close 2nd tier for me is frontschwein however. did not see this one coming, such an old band releasing such a killer album that late in their career. I'm personally not too fond of mortuus-era marduk, notable exceptions being frontschwein, serpent sermon, and viktoria (kind of).
in general I'd say that marduk's discography is, of course, somewhat hit or miss, but less so than enslaved for example. marduk have managed to surprise me again from time to time, whereas enslaved's stylistic shift means i'll likely never enjoy a new album by them.

I agree with the OP, they have been through so many different phases and yet many people accuse them of being one-dimensional... hey ho.
I have a very soft spot indeed for 'Plague angel' as it was my gateway album (and thus Marduk was my gateway band) into black metal as a whole, and that thing still rips like a vicious motherfucker all these years later. But really, I can find something to love in all their records, with only 'Le grande danse macabre' and 'Wormwood' dipping slightly below the others in my personal taste.

There you go:
https://www.metal-archives.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=119211

Those of the Unlight, without a doubt. Majestic and unique...

Heaven Shall Burn . . . has a unique place for me, being the first album of Marduk's that I heard. And it is truly an underrated killer of an album, possibly let down by Legion's pretty monotonous vocals. Awesome bass lines.

PDM was a favorite at the time; I gotta say that it has aged terribly. I think everyone from Rom 5.12 would be their best era, Wormwood was fucking fantastic. Serpent Sermon didn't do much for me, but Frontschwein and Viktoria have been improvements. I've actually really enjoyed Viktoria; its pretty simple and minimal at times, but really well done. A solid 7.5/10.

Have to agree, I may not ever be into Enslaved again bc of how completely they embraced the progressive rock/metal elements. Nothing against them, of course, it's an artist's right to do whatever they damn well please as long as it's honest & true to them, but they lost me somewhere around Vertebrae or earlier, I guess. And I never could get into Monumension.

To keep it about Marduk though, it seems the roots of their... "intentions" is probably a better word than "sound" because sound in much more a matter of opinion, but their intentions seem to be unholy blasphemous black metal from Day 1.

"Those of the Unlight" by a mile. Perfect album, right down to the cover art! Plenty of speed and intensity, but also...you know, actual dynamics.

Opus Nocturne, for me. I wouldn't say that they have one absolute classic that towers above the others but Opus... is where it all came together in a cohesive way and still retained the variation, subtlety and highly memorable songwriting. While the debut is good (some cool atmospheric moments) and Those of the Unlight is great (still young-sounding, but with much greater focus), Opus... is where they find their feet and it's probably got Dan Swano's best production job, too. The addition of a much better, tighter drummer worked wonders, too.

That said, I like pretty much all their eras, with the stuff between Panzer Division Marduk and Plague Angel just being boring rather than outright bad. Of course, some albums are weaker - Wormwood doesn't appeal to me much, either - but overall their discography lacks any outright crap albums. For a second album, I'd probably take Those of the Unlight, which has a unique atmosphere and sound (would it be weird to say it sounds somewhere between Sweden and Greece?).

I too agree with this. People who are writing Marduk off based solely on Panzer Division Marduk and accuse the band of being nothing more than mindless blasting norsecore are fucking cretins. In fact I don't think that any of their albums sound alike.

That being said I have a hard time picking out a favorite album because I like all of them (although La Grande Danse Macabre and World Funeral admittedly are slightly more boring than the rest of the discography).

Not surprised to see "Those" be mentioned so much, I agree it's close and that may have been my favorite at one point, but Opus, just feels like a more refined continuation of that... It even haves Wolves part II. I must say that World Funeral is underrated, it's got some badass slow songs and one of the sickest riffs ever in the middle of Night of the Long Knives. A lot of their other albums such as Wormwood and Rom 512 have a couple AMAZING songs (Cold Mouth Prayer) which made the overall album worthwhile just because those songs were so good.

I'm always a fan of atmosphere, variety and complex songwriting, but Panzer Division Marduk is one of the few cases where relentlessness and pure adrenaline win over the qualities mentioned before.

I've never quite found an album so aggressive, obtuse but at the same time engaging as it, and while i like several of their more varied works (Opus, ...Heaven and World Funeral in particular) it's still the dumb, unstoppable steel tank that gets the most plays

Those of the Unlight

I'll go with ROM 5:12 which is my favorite and La Grande Danse Macabre is a close second. I'm HUGE on their mid tempo songs and these two albums have a ton of them. ROM is grim as fuck and La Grande Danse Macabre is the album I learned to do black metal vocals from.

Yeah, agreed - I wanted to go for kvlt points and say 'no albums, just track three on the Glorification EP' or something, but Panzer Division Marduk is the one. It's also great for introducing people to black metal, as some of the vocals are actually quite clear - altogether now; "CHRISTRAAAAAAPIIIIIIING BLAAAAAAAACK METAAAAL" !

Those of the Unlight is my favorite. But I'm hardly a big Marduk fan as I just don't care much for that hyper-aggresive black metal sound they normally do. But Those of the Unlight is more restrained and even has some nice melodic and melancholic moments that they never really attempted again. Some parts on the album even remind me a little of older Katatonia, strangely enough. I wish they had continued with this sound/style, but oh well.

Wow, guys. I love World Funeral.

Opus nocturne or dark endless.
Not a fan of their releases after heaven shall burn.

Easily Those of the Unlight, though I only like that album and Opus Nocturne from them.

My all time favourite black metal band and the band that introduced me to the genre. Can't believe nobody has mentioned Nightwing yet, what a great album. The first half has some of the best blasting Marduk songs and the second half is a brilliant concept with more varied songs. Love the riffs onthis album. The re-recording of Deme Quaden Thyrane is fantastic too.


For my favourite though I'd have to go with Heaven Shall Burn. This album has it all in my opinion, riffs, songs, drumming, cool bass lines, atmosphere. Morgan never wrote riffs like this again, so technical compared to their other albums but also melodic and memorable. I saw them play this album in its entirety last year and they played it even faster!

Le Grande Danse Macabre
Heard this the night before I saw them open for Deicide/Hate Eternal back in 2001 at Maritime Hall in SF.
They actually sounded better live than on the CD.

On iTunes, I have the start time for this song set to the moment when that section begins. The damn riff is amazing but it's just so out of place, it sounds like an entirely different band wrote it.

Nightwing, hands down. And I find it strange too see so much love for Those... since it's the only Marduk album I don't like!...

I do too actually.
I like the first 3 plus WF and Rom, but I would say I don't have a clear-cut favorite...

You know, as much I love Black Metal, I just could never truly get into this band. I like a few songs and a couple albums here and there, but as a whole I find them to be boring and one-dimensional. The clear-cut example of this is in the drumming, they just blast through everything! No variations, no mix-ups, just blast-beat after blast-beat for every track. Usually I could overlook this but the production job tends to make it worse, for the drums are mixed loud and up in the front to the point of almost drowning out all other instruments. (Do the Remasters fix this by any chance?)

This is why I absolutely loved Frontschwein, it's an album with not only cool riffs but also a fun variation on the drum beats. Sure you had the blast-beats on songs like "Frontschwein" and "Rope of Regret," but you also had a cool dance beat on "The Blonde Beast," and a cool groovy beat on "Between the Wolf-Packs." Truly a fun Black Metal album, which unfortunately I cannot say for the majority of Marduk albums.

My favourites are Rom 5:12 and Wormwood. I always did like Marduk. I got into them around the time of Nightwing (huge nostalgia with me and that album) and then I followed them through their career. What appealed to me, and why I think the band has stayed relevant through the years, are the clear progression of their sound. Sometimes not successful but I think it always breathed new life into the project.

To me Mortuus might be one of the best black metal vocalists ever. He's unique in the way he performs in the studio. Lots of effects, noises and added layers to what he does. But he's also a songwriter and, I guess, a producer. Especially Rom 5:12 has a clear "Mortuus soundscape" (very similar to Funeral Mists Salvation).

I always loved Marduks mid-tempo stuff and Rom 5:12 is filled with that. But the faster stuff also feels and sounds more urgent and relevant (especially compared to later Legion-era Marduk where it felt like, especially the fast songs, ran on an empty tank). Wormwood is a little bit more filthy and aggressive. Perhaps their most progressive outing as well. I love it a lot.

I'm a little surprised by so many mentions of their early recordings. Not because they are bad but just because they did so much in between I though more people would be fans of a certain era of their career. Having said that I think I bought all of their early stuff at the same time, or in close approximaty of each other so they tend to run together for me. However Those of the Unlight sounds very adolescent to me in both a positive and a negative way. Opus Nocturne has a couple of great track but in general a meh album. Very cool cover though.
And in regards to the Legion era I think La Grande Danse Macabre is underrated. The slower stuff on that album is excellent!

World Funeral. I dig the overbearing production and death metal influences. Some quality hits like "Hearse", "World Funeral" and "Bleached Bones" on there. Even covered the latter on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAipxI-5gwM

I always come back to Plague Angel when I want some Marduk. That album is just filthy and unrelenting in all the good ways. Also they played Throne of rats when I saw them live, lost my shit.

You should listen to La Grande Danse Macabre then!

Has to be Nightwing for me. First album I picked up, I guess there's some nostalgia there.

Serpent Sermon for me

they're all good

Probably the earliest 3 albums and every album post Legion era. Can't put my finger on why but a lot of the material done during the Legion era is a complete bore for me to listen to. That being said, Opus Nocturne is an incredible album full of ferocity, yet emotional beauty. Those of the Unlight also has what is to me an incredibly beautiful instrumental "Echoes From the Past"; just the whole song itself is humbling and very sombre.

I think the best thing about their catalog is that it's diverse, so there's plenty of variation and choice when you go to pick an album to listen to.