The next CD to be rescued from The Free Bin and showered with attention is “Nightwing” by the Swedish Black Metal outfit, Marduk. My curiosity in such a recording was driven primarily by my love of Adult Swim’s outrageously funny, Metalocalypse, a cartoon that follows the wacky hijinx of a fictitious metal band known as Dethklok. Having only been exposed to the parody, I was eager to see just how awesomely horrible Marduk could be. And horrible they are.
In Dante’s Inferno the deepest level of hell is described as a dark, frozen wasteland where souls are locked into an icy eternity of nothingness rather than being consumed by flame. Here, we have a similar contrast: instead of the blazing blast beats and red hot guitar solos of Dethklok, “Nightwing” is cold, unchanging and unyielding in its wave of negativity. The individual instruments indistinguishable in the mix, the songs too similar in tempo and tone to tell where they begin and end, this album is more disturbing in its homogenously bleak atmosphere than its misanthropic thematic material.
Having said that, its thematic material could be this recording’s only redeeming quality. Sure, the opening tracks, “BloodtideXXX,” “Of Hell’s Fire,” “Slay the Nazarene” are fairly un-clever attempts to scare my grandma, but then “Nightwing” takes a legitimately interesting turn. The following tracks are a collection of historically inspired odes to Vlad III Prince of Wallachia, (aka Vlad the Impaler, likely the basis for the legend of Dracula) celebrating his legendary ruthlessness.
While it seems noteworthy for a band like Marduk to delve into historical material, the even more interesting twist is that history is still undecided on the chosen subject. Vlad the Impaler is remembered as an unparalleled sadist though it is uncertain how much of this demonization is due to propaganda from political adversaries. To this day, Vlad is regarded as a national hero in present day Romania for defending his homeland against invading Turks as well as a corrupt domestic noble class. No one really denies that he brutally murdered tens of thousands of prisoners and nobles and their families but what is in dispute is how much they deserved it. Historical digressions aside, Vlad’s blood thirst is where Marduk picks up adding its own Satanic slant to the Dracula myth.
Unfortunately, this fascinating premise is rendered moot by “Nightwing’s” overall flaws. Potentially compelling lyrics are all but lost as they are belched in guttural hisses from the back of lead singer “Legion’s” throat. Any substantive atmosphere degenerates into the same old unsatisfying soup of despair that we got from the first few tunes. Ultimately Marduk succeeds in making a really offensive, fairly creepy sounding album but after a short while the listener, gag reflex re-adjusted, will most likely throw this disc back in the free bin and surf Cartoon Network looking for Metalocalypse reruns.
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