•
Rating: With this album, the Swedes Marduk want to pay homage to the great Bathory (founding father of black metal) and one of his most important albums, namely "Blood, Fire Death," by following a well-defined trilogy made up of albums.
The first is the bloody "Nightwing," the second the devastating "Panzer Division Marduk," and finally the funereal "La Grande Danse Macabre." With this review, I want to focus on "Nightwing," the first of the trilogy. First of all (for those who don't know), let's start by saying that Marduk plays Swedish-style black metal, which means it's extremely fast, very violent, and without compromise, with strongly blasphemous and anti-Christian lyrics.
A noteworthy factor is that this album is divided into two parts. The first five tracks are totally inspired by the malign. It starts with "Dictionnaire Infernal," a brief instrumental intro that seems to herald the beginning of a storm, namely "Bloodtide xxx," the second track, which is extremely fast with blast-beat drumming by Fredrik Andersson, powerful and captivating riffs, and Legion's agonizing and irreverent screaming. The lyrics speak of adepts gathering in a dark forest to invoke ancient pagan deities under the watchful eye of Satan. The piece changes towards the end with pressing rhythms to launch into "Of Hell’s Fire." A violent song with turbulent and damnably disharmonious riffs; the central part of this track is devastating and, of course, the lyrics speak of total devotion to Satan. The text states: "Thou The arcangel who fell from the heavenly empire, Thou the hand that wound with evil and unholy desire, Thou the black lord of the un light in which we all belong, From the deepest part of gehenna tormented souls sings damnations song". The fourth track, titled "Slay the Nazarene," as the title suggests, is extremely and unreasonably blasphemous to the point of being unimaginable. The first part concludes with the title track "Nightwing," which starts slow and drawn out before exploding into a brutal blast-beat accompanied by a melodic and malicious riff that extends throughout the piece.
The second part of the album opens with a slow and sinuous guitar riff by Morgan that catapults us into 15th century Romania at the court of Vlad III Tepes Dracul, at the beginning of his career as king and heinous murderer, when he and his brother Radu (who will soon become the favored lover of the sultan) are left as "guarantees" of loyalty to the Turks by their father Vlad II. The musical aspect of this piece is complex, the slowest, heaviest, and darkest, almost highlighting the feelings of hatred that grew in young Dracula's mind following the death of his father and brother Mircea. The next piece is "Dracole Wayda," which blends perfectly with the last notes of the previous song. The strongly cadenced rhythm and bloody riffs accompany Vlad Tepes's ascent and his desires for power. Loved by his compatriots for defeating the Turks of Mohammed the Second and those who threatened his country, he committed what we see as terrible crimes that our sensitive and modern minds rebel against. He was also known by the name Tepes, which in Romanian means "impaler." Impalement was a form of torture/execution that involved inserting a sharp, usually honey-greased stake into the rectum of the condemned and then slowly and gently pushing it through the mouth or shoulder blade, scrupulously avoiding damaging vital organs. The luckiest died immediately (the usual lucky ones!), while for some, the agony could last for days. When Mohammed the Second was defeated by Dracul, he was made to pass between two rows of twenty-five thousand impaled Turks and Bulgarians. Vlad Tepes had a real passion for impalement, although his imagination also delighted in other gruesomeness. Vlad was used to attending all the tortures he devised and often organized open-air banquets during which some condemned were impaled to entertain his meal and that of the disgusted diners (a bit like a piano bar today). This is the theme of the track "Kaziklu Bay the Lord Impaler" and the subsequent "Deme Quaden Thyrane," the first a cruel song with a furious assault of drums, scratching guitars, and agonizing screams, the second with a more melancholic and arpeggiated riff, the lyrics speak of capture and subsequent trial for damnation. The concluding track is "Anno domini 1476," where a military-rhythm drum and a saturated-sounding guitar presage the end of the reign of terror with the death of Count Vlad. The piece concludes with an almost lyrical part and with the rhythm of a sinister and melancholy Mazurka.
A decidedly important album for the history of black metal, especially for its compositional variety.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Slay the Nazarene (03:48)
It was predicted that with every tool
That the romans brought pain to you thy fool
People to your god should be lead
While our warriors lost and scattered fled
You should be the king on earth
Bastard son of virgin birth
Slay the Nazarene - In christian eyes supreme
You will die
Slay the Nazarene - Your might is just a dream
You shall die
Slay the Nazarene - Tourtured <tortured?> you will scream
You must die
Slay the Nazarene Slay the Nazarene
Die Die
On your command man should do what god wilth
Glorification of holy christian slime and filth
Your vision of your crusaders bravery
That turned the wiched out of their slavery
You should be the king of kings
But now feel the embrace of Lucifers wings
Slay the son of god - Drown him in his own blood
Meet your death
Slay the son of god - This is your sinners flood
We praise your death
Slay the son of god - Scum of inferior blood
Hail your death
Slay the son of god Slay the son of god
Death Death Death
Now glance upon your teachings
In the pits of lost realities
Behold the righteous ones
Before Satan at their knees
Slay the scum of the earth - Whoreson of infidel birth
You are dead
Slay the scum of the earth - Your cross is nothing worth
Your teachings are dead
Slay the scum of the earth - Teared apart with sadistic urge
Your god is dead
Slay the scum of the earth Slay the scum of the earth
Dead Dead Dead
Humiliated as no other
Seek patience at the weak chest of your father
I.N.R.I.
Crucified you shall die
Mocked and spitted at
Your feeble rat
Slay the Nazarene - In christian eyes supreme
You will die
Slay the Nazarene - your might is just a dream
You shall die
Slay the Nazarene - tortured you will scream
You must die
Slay the Nazarene Slay the Nazarene
Die Die Die
SLAY THE NAZARENE
06 Dreams of Blood and Iron (06:19)
The ravagings through his homeland gave the dragon the realm of Sebes
By saving his people from the turks and powers fatal to the flesh
But the turkish sultan Murad saw this as a treason to their deal
And swore to his god that one day the dragons fate he would seal
Across the donau with peace in mind the three of them ride
Dracul his father and brother was captured on the floods other side
The dragon swore his soul to the turkish realm of the sand
And left his sons to their fate in the infidel muslim land
As time went by Dracul for humans grew a great disgust
Aswell <as well?> as expiering <experiencing?> the pleasures of the harems
sinful lust
Decietfulness <?>, intrepidity and cruelty would become his name
Man or beast, muslim or christian it would all be the same
Brother Radu won the hearts of the turks and become Murads own son
While Vlad's powerful innerself would make him king in the long run
But as thunderbolt from clearblue <clear blue?> sky
Message that father Dracul had died
Words have arrived that brother Mircea has been captured and buried alive
Dracul swore that his killer, Hunyadi, wouldn't be able to survive
Along with the turks he turned against the first goal he could see
The wallachian throne ruled by pro-hungarian family Danesti
Two months later Dracul was cast out from rule
By conspiering forces who feared the lion and desired a mule
In fear of the turks and his fathers hungarian slayers
He fled to Moldavia and hoped that lord Bogdan would answear <answer?> to his
prayers
Lord Bogdan of Moldavia has fallen from rule in a pool of blood
Assassinated by rivalry powermongers to the fathersbrother of prince Vlad
Strengthened by promises of his cousins blood and steel
Dracul now will force his opponents to before him kneel
His fathers and brothers killers trust he now will earn
The realm of Transilvania awaits with fear his return
With twenty thousand crusaders he will drive poles through
Every follower of Danesti ruler Vladislav II
07 Dracole Wayda (04:07)
Back in Transilvania to be met by the news
Which struck the christian world as a blaze
Konstantinopel has fallen into the hands of the turks
And the emperor Konstantin is dead
The fear of the turks is growing but the sword of Dracul
Will show the muslims the reapers face
Vlad now took shelter in Sibiu so the coloured ones
Couldn't manage to get his head
A servant of god in league with Satan
A christian crusader who made the angels cry
A defender of moral and faith with nature bread by hellspawn
As driven by demonforces his army the muslims and christians
defy
But four years after his departure from the town Vlad appeared outside town
In the forests cold haze
His wallachian army slaughtered, tortured and plundered Sibiu
As raging demons terror they spread
Teared apart, impaled on poles now ten thousand of his countrymen
into the afterworld gaze
Maimed and scattered a few survivors, always to remember this day
Out into the night fled
A servant of god...
Dracul now repair his castle which the tartars centuries ago
Made a rampaged place
"His clothes had to work til the clothes fell from their bodies"
An old chronicle said
>From Poenari Vlad rules with an iron hand and his strife for power
^?
Leaves a bloodstained trace
The boyars was gathered for a meeting and soon on poles
They dying blead
To cherish the soulds In fear of divine punishment and hells embrace
Dracul raised abbeys and supported the church as a sign
To the godwill he god offered
But the mortals he by orgys of bloodshed and torture
Made clear that they Vlad had to praise
Eternal death to thee who had the nerv
To not the voivod and inquisitor dread
A servant of god...
09 Deme Quaden Thyrane (05:06)
On a cold mist october morning
In the year of the lord 1462
The horses appeared on the hills of Brasov
The process of damnation would soon begun
Dracul would show the world how to correct
The rumanians which lacked strength or showed disrespect
The following story is just one of many on Draculs way
To outwipe every opposer who didn't him blindly obey
He killed by crushing them under the wheels of barrows
Others were undressed and skinned alive
To their very bowels and others were still impaled upon wooden poles
Or fried over the glowing embers placed under them
The cold wind of death follow in his way
Deme quaden thyrane
Some of them were run through with stakes that impaled their heads, breasts
and behind
Until the pole was driven through the mouth
To ellude the lack of any cruelty he drew stakes through
The breast <breasts?> of mothers and then he went on by impaling
Their infants upon theese <?>
The cold wind of death follows in his way
Deme quaden thyrane
So many have to die
By the horrible ways of torturing them
With such instruments that can only be invented
By the most nefarious cruelty possessed
Uttermost dreadful tyrant that ever existed
But the hungarian king Mathias Corvinus now Dracul betrayed
And for twelve long years Vlad now in the kings prison stayed
But the bonds of blood that Dracul in prison tied
Made his king in Wallachia again with Mathias as an allied
With lord Stefan Bathori's army and military skill
Dracul now will make all saches, boyars, Danesti's and turks blood chill
Loading comments slowly
