Marduk
February 17, 2017
Regent Theater – Los Angeles, CA
Swedish black metal band Marduk made their long-awaited return to Los Angeles. Marduk‘s name is derived from the Babylonian god Marduk, patron deity of Babylon. Last year, they were forced to cancel their USA tour due to visa issues, but now that they had all that sorted out, they were ready to return to their loyal fan base. In 2015, they released their thirteenth studio album, Frontschwein (German military slang for “Front Pig”). With visas now in hand, the band was ready to lay waste to the USA as only infamous black metal bands can do. One worry that the fans had was that the anti-fascist group Antifa was trailing the band on their tour with beliefs that the band has ties to white supremacy and believe the band to be Nazis due to the band’s lyrical content and album covers. All of which is of course, untrue. On this rainy day, even Antifa couldn’t brave the rain as there was no sign of them in the area. Sadly, the following day in Oakland, California, they weren’t so fortunate as Antifa made threats against the venue and were forced to cancel the show. Luckily the Los Angeles show would go on as planned and fans were ecstatic to see Marduk.
Marduk came out and started the show with the first track from the new album, Frontschwein. The band unleashed their signature black metal sound with heavy guitars combined with frontman Mortuus’ vocals. In true metal fashion, the fans on the floor went crazy and started moshing to the music. Mortuus was the most mobile member of the band as he would actively use the full stage as his playground and made sure fans from all the sides of the venue could get a chance to see him. The second song played was the follow up to the new album, The Blond Beast. This song has more of a dance groove to it, yet fans enjoyed it enough to continue jumping and moshing. For the third track, the band went back to their classic catalog and performed Of Hell’s Fire from their 1997 Nightwing album. Marduk primarily used dark lights to light up their stage and maintain a dark atmosphere. Purple, blue, and red were the primary choices to give Marduk a chilling stage presence. Not much was said by Mortuus in between songs as all they did was play song after song. Black metal warfare continued to be played as Marduk played songs such as Throne of Rats, Warschau III: Necropolis, and Wolves. The band seemed to be finished after playing Wolves and left the stage. Fans were already making their way out of the venue when the band came back out and decided to play an encore. Some fans made their way back to the floor area to enjoy one last song from Marduk. They closed the show with one of their popular songs, Panzer Division Marduk. The floor stayed active with moshers and crowd surfers for the last song. Overall, it was great to have one of black metal’s finest bands come back to the USA and hopefully it’s not too long before they come back again.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
