Viktoria

Artificial music making, the curse of the 21st century, has caught up the Marduk. With so many albums, it was obviously difficult to avoid a certain repetition or - on the other side - require devastating changes and experimenting from them. I am well aware of this, but let there be some concrete details and ingenious arrangements! Despite literally a few more recent solutions (about which in a moment), "Viktoria" appears to be a made in a hurry disc, as if Morgan and the rest of the band did not want to fully use all (new) ideas on this disc to have for the next.

I have already mentioned a similar thing in the case of "Frontschwein". The newer patents do not go beyond one or two ideas and are much further back, the old ones do not have the proper power and do not convince with references to the previous few albums. What's worse, on "Victoria" such a "combination" works much worse than on "Frontschwein". Occasional additions in the form of among others: a children's choir ("Werewolf"), vocal melodies ("June 44"), simpler riffs or more "movie" insertions ("Tiger I"), are incidents that have no impact on better perception of music, and most of them seem to be crammed into force, as if they appeared only to convince out the antifans who accused Marduk of stagnation. As a result, the "news" appears somewhere in the background and does not fit into more exciting music.

Anyway, I have to admit that the group did quite well again with the faster songs. There can be liked songs like "Narva", "The Devil's Song" or "Equestrian Bloodlust" (the first riff is the best on the album!). There are specific vocals, a nice atmosphere and Fredrik with a sensational blasting. It's just that these are the only songs from the album that I can't fault on! Except that they are kept in a too well-known style here. The others who are mentioned and not mentioned are quite often bored and fall into the pathos of war, and when one of them get slower paces...the situation is getting seriously uninteresting! On the plus side, "Victoria" can be assigned a short duration and - thus - a greater number of shorter songs (so there is not so much agony to listeners), but the question is whether it's good when the album passes quickly and at the same time escapes attention at the same pace. On the other hand, on "Victoria" there is not so much to analyze.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/02/marduk-viktoria-2018.html

One of the most important (if not the most important) things that make tennis a brilliant sport to play is the element of surprise. The sense of the unexpected every time the ball leaves your opponent's racket. The anticipation, the amount of effort one puts in order to return the ball. But what about when you want to improve your skills, to get better? Running around the court like a madman, scrambling to get to the ball, while you are receiving a barrage of either powerful or awkward shots, won't help you hone your technical skills. And that's when the tennis ball machine comes into play. Set the thing to the preferred kind of shots, set the frequency, or even control it with a bluetooth fob and there you go. Endless hours of effortless practice with a never-failing companion.

Marduk has become the tennis ball machine of black metal. Flawless, perfect in execution, professional, and always extremely useful and relevant. Since Arioch joined the band there is a distinct sound being built and slowly perfected. Wormwood onwards, one can feel a very distinct mannerism in the way the songs are constructed and arranged in order to form each album's tracklist. Morgan and Arioch run their own private show (ok mostly the former, since the vocal arrangements mainly follow the riffs), regardless of the rest of the ever-changing personnel. I can't think of a more professional metal musician than Morgan in the modern metal era. The man is a relentless riff-producing machine and I am sure that after every album is recorded and done and dusted there are myriads of riff leftovers, enough to fill other bands' discographies. This kind of quality and consistency for a band that releases an album every three years is just mind-blowing.

Viktoria has it all. Punky intro? Check. A thousand sharp riffs? Check. Punishing blasts of absolute precision? Check. A few slower/melodic parts for good measure? Check. Top notch musicianship? Check. Ferocious, hateful vocal delivery full of rolling Rs? Check. Loud but not overpolished sound production? Check. Controversial adolf-y lyrical content? Check. At moments it seems like that kind of perfection can only be generated by a computer algorithm. Feed the thing with all things black metal and wait for the end result.

Truth is, I keep telling myself that I miss the old days of Marduk, with Legion's unpredictable delivery, Morgan's sonic variety and Fredrik Andersson's all-over-the-place-all-out-war beating. But in reality I keep finding myself reaching for post-2004 releases every time I decide to revisit Marduk. One moment I am like MAN I REALLY FEEL LIKE LISTENING TO SOME OPUS NOCTURNE NOW and then all of a sudden Frontschwein pops on my player. Really strange. The (not so) funny thing is that Funeral Mist's course from Devilry to Hecatomb is starting to seem pretty similar to Marduk's with every release being more predictable than the previous one. And to make things worse, it sounds like the two bands are starting to blend into each other, slowly creating one common back catalog.

In any case, as you probably realised by now, if it's experimentation or rawness or ritualism or atmosphere you're after, then look elsewhere. If the thrill of the unexpected behind every corner fascinates you, this album is not for you. What you get here is a calculated, consistent, sonic assault and vicious bursts of safe, top quality black metal; an exercise in perfection and predictability. The tennis ball machine of black metal is here. And like any other machine, when you set it up the way you want it, you get the results you need. In their own words (Narva): HAMMERING - KEEP HAMMERING. AGAIN AND AGAIN. (Yes, like a tennis ball machine).

The first song – "Werwolf" – conscientiously performs the function of intro: it's short, built on one riff, that is, ostensibly, makes no claims to have a major importance. Nevertheless, by its dynamism and inexorability, it sets the offensive-dominated tone for the entire work. Indeed, "Viktoria" is a very powerful and merciless work.

Due to the album's title, one could expect anthemic or march-like riffs here, but no one sounds anything like that on the album – if only in the finale of the eighth song "The Devil's Song" you can hear an almost pompous riff. A severe convulsive riff – like a werewolf grin – creates an alarming atmosphere in the opening track, and the maniacal vocals, impatient of contradiction, make it glowing to the maximum – and such a condition will escort the listener to the very end of the album. The only thing "Werwolf" is misleading is its speed: despite the song contains a blast beat episode, it is mostly mid-tempo, while the axis of the album is a blast beat hurricane. Nevertheless, the constant double bass attack is diligently adhered to here.

On the whole, "Viktoria" is the same Marduk with their luscious tremolo picking riffs, sometimes carrying a spine-tingling melody: for example, the main riffs in the second "June 44", the sixth "The Last Fallen", and "The Devil's Song". But after all, for the most part, the riffs are worrisome and unsettling: in the the third song "Equestrian Bloodlust" a sinking feeling comes on really strong, this composition is a perfect specimen in this view. The songs are blistering fast and therefore seem even shorter than they are. The attack becomes especially crazy and furious when the vocals revoice the incisive riffs, as in "June 44" and the seventh "Viktoria". Unexpected pauses that happen sometimes in songs, and drastic endings, paradoxically increase this speed sense (for example, "Equestrian Bloodlust"). And the ricky-tick passages with aggressive breaks ("June 44", fifth "Narva") externalize the clanking of tracks – without doubt, this assault cannot be stopped.

But for all that, according to a warning from the "Werwolf" song, there are episodes in middle tempo on the album. The decrease in speed redoubles a creepy atmosphere of the work, but does not take away the forces from the hurricane – this is prevented by some "spices" to a slowed tempo. For example, in the fourth song "Tiger I", which is almost completely slow, a recurrent passage with the "pinpoint" blast beat – abrupt and very short, almost instantaneous, portion of beats, – takes on the role of such a "spice" and keeps the album energy at a predetermined level. And again, this "groovy" song is conducted by the exacting vocals with some otherworldly threat.

In the sixth "The Last Fallen", also weighted with unexpected tempo changes, the beginning is in mid tempo rhythm, and, interestingly, it is built on heavy metal riffs played in a "black metal-ish" manner – this time the "spice" is like that. Heavy metal flickered on the album before, however, even more disguised: in the structure of "June 44" a "chorus" can be distinguished, in which the vocalist repeats the riff melody with his voice: if it were heavy metal, then the voice would most likely be falsetto. Well, here are the harsh vocals, don't panic, so as a result, some kind of surrealistic rage is generated.

If the desire exists, it's possible to hear other stylistic inserts on "Viktoria". So, in "Narva", the nervous and disturbing blast beat suddenly switches to mid-tempo, almost epic pagan metal. But this is for a short while only, so to say "on the side", like a hookup between a traveler (or is it more correct to talk about a conqueror) in a foreign country and a woman from the local residents. The same story is in "The Last Fallen", but an almost Norwegian black metal riff sounds here – somewhere in the middle and in the finale. Well, in "The Devil's Song" you can hear a delicate soft riff, which is uncharacteristic for the nowaday's Marduk, something in the spirit of melodic Swedish black / death metal – oops, that was the early Marduk. Right, now it's also just an occasional decoration.

It should be noted a couple of other points of interest on the album. In the title song "Viktoria", an unexpected lick begins at 0:55 – the bass performs a gloomy solo, while string bending is used in the guitar part. The result of this collaboration is an almost cosmic effect, completely not in the spirit of the album. An almost melodic solo sounds in the ninth song "Silent Night", it is all the more impressive because it imperceptibly grows out of a slow gloomy riff. According to the logic of the album, even "blasts from the past", namely reminiscences of the early Marduk, do not break the offensive.

The current Marduk have reached the level of their brand name, when nothing can be changed – even the slightest stylistic change will turn into the end of the world. So everything is measured and standardized here, on the edge of "polished". But one cannot say that "Viktoria" is banal or boring album. This is the work of professionals.

Together with Abruptum, Dissection, and Ophthalamia, Marduk is one of the most real, most authentic bands to come from the Swedish black metal scene. In this year’s full-length album release, Viktoria, the band undoubtedly did their best to keep the eternal black flame burning and alive, while staying true to their classic borderline death metal black metal sound, and still retaining accessible production values and levels without ever sounding too fake or plastic.

Coming three years after their previous full-length, Frontschwein, this album arrives at a much-needed point in time, when the scene is becoming nothing but a carnival and festival of new, no-name posers nobody heard of or cared about years ago pretending to be something they are not, and countless of morons perverting the name of the black metal genre by releasing absolutely worthless projects that are in the thousands all over every platform you can think of. Thankfully, we still have genuine bands such as Marduk active that can make one somewhat glad to still call oneself a black metal enthusiast. Admittedly though, this effort is probably not as good as it could’ve been, or is it?

The band members at the time of the recording that formed the album’s lineup were M. Håkansson (Evil) with the guitars, M. "Devo" Andersson (Devo) on the bass, D. "Mortuus" Rostén (Mortuus) performing the vocals and F. Widigs (Fredrik Widigs) doing the drum work. Nothing much of interest to mention regarding this aside from the fact that the only remaining members from the 90s from the band are Evil and Devo, the rest being added later on over time as the band progressed onward into the 2000s and 2010s, until the present day.

It’s hard to release something of worth in the current music climate, particularly in black metal, since the standards are completely forgotten by now, and only a select few actually care about keeping a serious mentality or attitude towards their musical work or being respectful of previous key figures in the scene that set the precedent for how certain things should sound and be like. At the same time, it’s important to further advance the genre in a way that it doesn’t remain stale and boring for those who have heard it all and know their shit when it comes to the originators of the style. Hence, the question is raised, what can a band with an admirable trajectory and a good amount of releases behind their back such as Marduk put out in the market that will NOT dirty their name or make them seem like they’re trying too hard, all the while staying true to the genre’s traditions and counter-culture? Should they aim to please the fans or should they just not care and do what sounds good to them?

The album opens up with a mediocre introductory track that features some out of place horn sections that I honestly couldn’t have cared less for, and some guest/session female vocals by three girls that apparently have only ever been featured on this album when it comes to metal. They don’t sound bad or anything, but they're a strange addition to the track, although not an unwelcome one. The moment that one first track is over is when the album starts to get into its stream of infernal music, getting better track after track, merging the listener in the fantastic world of the devilish music that Marduk is more than well known for. One can tell from the second track alone that the serious black metal listener is going to be getting nothing but what they had been waiting and hoping for from the band.

The overall approach to the music is impeccable. Marduk takes their work seriously, and one can easily tell. The intricate and dirty melodies are spread throughout the release in a very slick and punishing manner, and they’re accompanied by growling vocals and somewhat technical instrumentation that plagues the album of proficiency and mastery.

The guitar work on Viktoria is good, the melodies sound pretty mean and menacing, while still keeping the buzzsaw effect on them that gives them a cold edge and makes their sound penetrate the aural space more by making it more intense overall. The riffs, however, aren’t really evil-sounding as much as they’re battle-like, since all of them have an intentional tonality that evokes images of war, battlefields, conflict, and trouble as opposed to darker or more occult, or depressive tonalities to be heard on other black metal bands, something that at the same time is part of the traditional sound and particular style of the band itself, so that’s a plus in a way.

The drums are excellently performed, and they’re prominent but don’t take too much space, so they provide the music with an extra intensity factor and serve as a great foundation for the other instruments to dictate the direction of the tracks, always standing beside them through faster blast beats or slower sections. Speaking of blast beats, the ones on this release sound very classic and crunchy, and they give the record a cool vibe. They’re actually one of the best parts of the album.

Concerning the vocals, I’m not all for them, to be honest. They’re evidently okay, but there are some sections on which they sound weird and I didn’t like what they tried to do at some points when they sound like they’re being performed through a megaphone. It’s a weird atmospheric filter that they put on them for whatever reason that subtracts from the experience while listening, to me, since I expect to be put in a certain environment that is somewhat broken or sounds less serious when those sections kick in, as they sound too try-hard, basically less sincere than the rest of the vocal work.

The bass is in total consonance with the guitar, so I have nothing much to really say about it other than I enjoy its contribution to the sonic map of Viktoria.

Overall, and to answer some of the questions I formulated through the review, Marduk do what they know how to do best, but I didn’t enjoy this record as much as I could’ve enjoyed it if they had left some of the less interesting, more insincere sections out of the mix and had focused on bringing forth a straightforward effort, as opposed to what we have here: something that sounds good, but feels like some amount of filler went into the completion of the album for the sake of it, something that makes me think less of it, as much as I do like it otherwise. It’s a shame.

I've never made any secret of Mortus era Marduk being my favourite of all. I love all of their albums since Plague Angel and this one is no exception. The opening track Werwolf is a little punky, Although I liked it, I hoped the entire album would not sound like that. Never fear, what follows is very much later era Marduk. The rest of the album is Marduk belting out savage black metal at break neck speed. Clocking in at thirty three minutes this album represents a swift uppercut delivered by professionals.

The unrelenting blasts are carefully tempered by slower and even melodic patches to great affect. Every detail of this album has been carefully crafted. Any filler has been left on the cutting room floor. A good example of this is when Narva comes to a crescendo with forceful drumming and vocals followed by a masterful melodic guitar piece. I defy anyone to resist the urge to chant "hammering - keep hammering" along to this one.

Fredrik Widigs has already proven himself to be and excellent choice of Marduk drummers, but he has really outdone himself this time. Everything he hits he does so perfectly with a style of his own. He really powers a lot of the tracks on this album. Equally effective at high and low speeds his performance is outstanding on this one. The blasting as well as subtle touches on The Last Fallen showcase just what this guy can do. Singer Mortus delivers his usual ferocious vocals and Morgan and Devo turn in the performance of their lives.

If chainsaw riffing, blastbeats and viciously delivered vocals are your thing, accept no substitute. Those expecting Opus Nocturne part two will keep having to wait. For a band on their fourteenth album to be this relevant is almost unheard of. Doubtless the continued use of world war two lyrics will gather more attention from some corners than necessary. Personally I find it refreshing. I have at least five hundred albums with purely satanic themes and to be honest it is good to hear black metal bands expanding beyond that.

The antique drama has always fascinated the audience and the rise and fall of the National Socialist movement of Adolf Hitler was probably the ultimate, most devastating and most criminal perversion of its script. This might be a reason why the horrors of World War II are still present, at least in Germany, but also in further parts of Europe. And the sheer size of the military, ideological and moral disaster of uncle Adolf and his dubious circle of friends seems to be a never ending inspiration for the extreme metal scene. Sweden was not really involved in the European catastrophe of the years 1939 to 1945, if we leave the constant delivery of ore to the Third Reich out of consideration. Anyway, even the descendants of the more or less neutral observers are not able to close the book called World War II. Marduk's "Viktoria" proves evidence.

The iconic artwork is Marduk's answer to "Slaytanic Wehrmacht" shirts and "Heydrich" stickers. It relies on the aesthetics of the German propaganda and makes its mark. Its simple and clear message lies in close proximity to the glorification of the German Landser and the music does not leave much room for interpretation as well. The Swedes love to play with fire... Either way, air raid sirens welcome the listeners and pull them directly into the combat. Marduk invite the hordes to a feast that connects "Frontschwein" with "Panzer Division Marduk" and the German title "Viktoria" - instead of "Victory" - seems to indicate that there is an inner coherence between these three works. "Werwolf" with its merciless aggression and the hysterical choirs sounds like the forgotten ninth piece of their black metallic "Reign in Blood" from 1999, while "Tiger I" presents a riff which picks up the vibrations of songs like "Wartheland". In addition, parts of "Equestrian Bloodlust" are similar to some of "Blooddawn". So what? The nine cannon crackers commute between high-speed eruptions and sinister slowness, but one thing is for sure: the material is a pure slap in the face without extraordinary effects, without frills and without experiments. Marduk deliver pure insanity and it is not only the short, Blitzkrieg-compatible playtime that builds a bridge to their most stubborn album so far.

What about the individual performances? Mortuus conveys the maximum quantum of hate, aggression and contempt. His vocals would turn the old grandmaster of hateful speeches and king of propaganda, Dr. Goebbels, green with envy. Morgan delivers the whole spectrum of black riffs, sinister leads and every now and then he intersperses triumphant lines ("Narva" and "The Devil's Song"). Devo's bass guitar is fine, but not responsible for spectacular elements, while Fredrik sometimes seems to have more arms than an octopus. I always enjoy the mega-fast sections of Marduk very much and "Viktoria" does not need to be asked very long in this context. It fails to show new sound facets and the lyrical themes are anything but original. However, this is not the crucial fact. What really counts is that Marduk still (or again) celebrate an utterly atrocious style of extreme metal which evokes much more emotions than the approach they presented on rather slow-moving albums such as "Rome 5:12" or "World Funeral". A ponderous killer like the closer "Silent Night" does not cause any damage, quite the opposite, but the pure essence of Marduk comes to light whenever they accelerate speed.

That's the reason why bullets like the excellent "Narva" make my day. Their unrelenting vehemence will not disappoint any fan of Marduk, and the same goes for the production of the album. From my point of view, the sound engineers have done a more or less flawless job. The album sounds powerful and marginally mechanic. It spreads a cold aura and the ironclad guitars are the main reason for this. This sound fits the lyrical topic. Speaking of the lyrics, Marduk supply, among other things, old Wehrmacht or Nazi slogans like "sweat saves blood" ("Schweiß spart Blut") or "fast as greyhounds, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel". The latter described the propagated conditions for the German youth and I will never understand the cynicism of asshole Adolf who sent this promising youth on the battlefields. However, it's too late... but now it's time to listen to a great work: "Viktoria", an album like a successful Blitzkrieg without any major flaw. Germany has lost the war, but 73 years later, I feel like a winner - and I definitely don't need another drama of this kind.