Still forging on after all of these years, Marduk has been one of the forerunners of Sweden’s black metal movement, much to the delight of a dedicated and otherwise weary fan base. The pale imitators of this sound have come and gone, leaving nothing but specks of dust in their respective wakes. Marduk is in for the long haul, with Mortuus vocally more blasphemous than ever.

Serpent Sermon is the newest offering in the Marduk lineage; foreboding and at times surreal, the album begins with every bit the malevolent soundscape you would expect from Marduk. “Serpent Sermon” has that familiar and always welcome aura of violence and evil always simmering under the cold surface. While the signature sound of Marduk is always there in blazing tremolo picking and howling vocals over blast beat drumming, the music tends to deviate from any expected course with some quick time changes too subtle for novices to notice, but important enough for legions to grasp and appreciate. What sets apart Marduk apart from all other black metal bands is that their musical tempestuousness and lack of deviation from said volatility is what makes them recognizable and resilient.

Mortuus is as brutal as ever, hissing and growling his way through the album with all of the ease of an Exorcist outtake. His vocals are what makes for good black metal, also evident in his other band Funeral Mist. When hearing tracks like “Into Second Death” I’m immediately reminded of the very music that made this movement important some twenty years ago. It’s all about the setting and visuals created with this music, as it always has been. While not relying on speed throughout the album, “Temple of Decay” provides a slow and paced look inside the old school Hellhammer or Celtic Frost era. If you can’t hear Celtic Frost in this track, you must have missed the memo along the way. It proves that Marduk can still retain its mark in the speedy assaultive black metal realm and still find progression in ancient texts of old.

When Legion left the fold some years ago, not many people were ‘warmed’ to the idea of Mortuus handling the vocals well enough to satiate their silly fears. He has made the masses forget about all of the blind loyalty and unreasonable fears and provided a tremendous kick to the throat with a vocal ability that, while not overly original, is horribly sickening enough to carve its sound into your chest with a dull butter knife. As expected, the rest of the band is up to the task of creating some of the better music in the movement today. Where some might call Marduk’s style antiquated and steeped in hum-drum self-imitation, the ever-changing time signatures and vocal melody always make for an interesting chasm when engaging this band. You simply either get Marduk or you can’t; there is really no margin for error. This latest album is along the same lines of what Marduk stands for, but is decidedly different from past releases in that the moods of each album shifts to its subject matter. That is, where each album is similar in Satanic reverence, the lyrics and tonal differences are vastly important to the cause. If you know Marduk you’ll understand; if you don’t know Marduk, I’d advise that you get familiar and see the progression for yourself.     

Cold and disarming, Serpent Sermon delves deep into the black and swirls around the din to subdue and subjugate the senses, allowing only brief glimpses of hope amidst all of this blasphemy.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Serpent Sermon
2.  Messianic Pestilence
3.  Souls for Belial
4.  Into Second Death
5.  Temple of Decay
6.  Damnation's Gold
7.  Hail Mary
     (Piss-soaked Genuflexion)
8.  M.A.M.M.O.N.
9.  Gospel of the Worm
10.  World of Blades

Total playing time:  46:22

Release Date: May 25, 2012
Label: Century Media Music

Marduk - Serpent Sermon

Reviewer: Chris

May 23, 2012