marduk wormwood

Released: 28 September 2009 Label: Regain Records

Marduk’s new album, Wormwood, which I assume is named after the star in the Book of Revelation which fell to earth and poisoned a third of the world’s water supply rather than the famous prison in West London, is a rather odd beast on first listen. While there’s still plenty of the velocity people think of as soon as the name Marduk is mentioned as well as more considered, slower grinding sections there’s an oddly clean, almost mechanical edge to the production.

Further listens reveal though that, beneath that clean, precise production it’s very much business as usual for Marduk and Wormwood follows on largely where previous album Rom 5:12 left off, though it is, perhaps, a slightly more direct album than its predecessor. Despite the songwriting being more immediate than Rom 5:12 though the songs don’t seem to quite have the staying power and while there’s some noticeable highlights, Whorecrowned in particular is as good a song as I’ve ever heard from Marduk, there’s also several occasions where I found my attention wandering.

Don’t get me wrong, Wormwood is by no means a bad album but it’s not an outstanding one and I’d say it was more of an enjoyable listen with a few moments of genuine brilliance rather than an essential one. Nevertheless, it’s worth getting for the pairing of the aforementioned Whorecrowned and Chorus of Cracking Necks, both of which are surely destined to become future live classics, if nothing else.


by Neil Woodfin