Marduk + Unlight + ATTIC live at Røverstaden –

 

 

Previous the concert I got time to check the merchandise and I was very surprised to see a Marduk t-shirt with two renaissance cherubs wearing soldier helmets but still cute. I still find the trend of bringing in religious art without major blasphemic modifications weird and I would rather see more evil things and medieval demons.

The warm-up band Unlight from Germany didn’t bring any surprises nor cherubs. Black Metal with Swedish influences. Dissection’s harmonic beauty comes to mind often and both Marduk and 2000’s norwegian melodic band influences are noticeable when it comes to mid- to slow tempo riffs. As a curious fact, they were a part of an anti-NSBM compilation years back meant as a tribute to Euronymous. I bet they were pretty disappointed when they heard about Necrobutcher’s plans for him.

 

 

Attic transformed the stage and brought a pretty lugubre atmosphere to the venue. Huge candelabra, incense smell and some other satanic kitsch props. Pretty nice! Their style is first wave BM / Heavy Metal and one cannot help to think about King Diamond. While Attic brings the lugubre atmosphere they do not bring the theatrical part, but musically they deliver. They have played in Norway before, in Bergen to be precise. I think it is more difficult to recreate the right atmosphere on bigger stages (unless you use candelabra as big as the ones Dragged Into Sunlight use), so this time the size of the stage helped a lot.

Marduk does not really need any ritualistic stuff at all and since I’m glad there were not many stage props around the drum kit nor lots of smoke and enough lights so you actually get to see the performance. So less is more in this case.

 

 

I have seen Marduk with two different vocalists four different drummers, and two bassists. But regardless of who plays the very essence of the war machine that is Marduk is always there and it is mind-blowing every time. They are one of the best bands in the history of Black Metal and have a long trajectory. Most of their discography is unique, pretty complex and technical and can’t be easily copied by others and that’s pretty awesome. There’s one Marduk and not 100 Marduk-like bands. Their performance is always excellent and powerful after some many years of relentless touring. The setlist for this mainly Scandinavian tour had many familiar songs like Baptism by Fire, The Black…, Of Hell’s Fire, Wolves, Burn My Coffin. They also played Werwolf and Equestrian Bloodlust from their latest album. I’d love to see more songs from that album in the future. What an awesome show it was and I’m already looking forward to see them again at Inferno, and then again, and again…

 

Full photo galleries here

UNLIGHT – https://www.eternal-terror.com/gallery/view.php?id=3934

ATTIC – https://www.eternal-terror.com/gallery/view.php?id=3935

MARDUK – https://www.eternal-terror.com/gallery/view.php?id=3933