Back To The “Front”: New Marduk Jam Ends All Doubt

Back before the holidays, two new Marduk jams had us anxious for the release of their album, Frontschwein. Anxious for two reasons: If the awesomeness of “Rope Of Regret” (here) and “Wartheland” (here) could be believed, then the album must be awesome, so hurry up February 10! But you might be another kind of “anxious,” for the vibe of Frontschwein is all World War II atrocity (again). Sure, this is the very function of black metal, to probe the depths of man’s coldness, cruelty, and calculation. And, it’s probably unfair to demand that a band like Marduk denounce Nazism, as it would be to ask them to take a public stand against traffic congestion or crappy pizza. That’s not quite fair.

Anyway, after ten spins of Frontschwein and its just-released title track (below), you’ll probably be freed of anxiety about its quality and messages, and just be anxious about its content. This aspect of Marduk might be definitively anti-war and super left-wing as it aims to convey the aural experience of really stressful, dangerous years of far-reaching turmoil. Compare that to any “another fallen hero”-type pop song, which renders in stiff-upper-lip poetry the tragedy of senseless proxy death. The latter is sad, the former is scary. One offers a resolution, one a terrifying warning. In one there is only math, in the other a shrug.

Marduk’s Frontschwein is out February 10 via Century Media. Pre-order here.