The masters of Christraping black metal finally return with a follow up to their last effort, Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered. I don’t know if it’s just me but how come these guys always have a new album out within a year? Is it maybe because their songs sounds like it was written in a day? I mean, the songs featured on here are quite simplistic, primitive and very repetitive at times. Though I’m very fond of hateful and aggressive black metal, I give this band credit for being one of the few bands from the Swedish horde that plays this kind of black metal nowadays. Anyways, back to the CD. Nightwing is definitely a well produced CD and the atmosphere this album creates definitely fits the gloominess and darkness Marduk has created. Divided into two chapters, "Dictionnaire Infernale" and "The Warlord of Wallachia," The first chapter starts off with the haunting intro Preludium, and ends at the title track. The second chapter begins with Dreams of Blood And Iron, and concludes the album with Anno Domini 1476. Dracole Wayda, and Deme Quaden Thyrane are the slowest/mid-paced songs in this album, while the rest are basically nonstop pulverizing blasts with a little slow yet gloomy parts in between. What else can I say about Marduk besides the fact that they’re one of the few black metal bands that is currently leading the black metal throne with their assault.

© 1998 grave
[this review originally appeared in INSOMNIA zine]