Opus Nocturne

by John Serba Marduk has always been the Swedish blastaholic cousin of the '90s Norse underground scene, the group stripping itself down to the four basic elements of extreme metal -- drums, guitar, bass, tortured rasps -- while staring down their crooked, stubborn, corpse-painted noses at all the black metal pantywaists cradling their keyboards and speed-limit signs. Obviously, restraint was an underutilized entry in Marduk's dictionary, and the band's hard-headed approach resulted in many albums like Opus Nocturne (the third full-length in a seemingly endless discography), which offers a few inspired moments -- an anthemic riff here, a bleak lyrical turn-of-the-screw there -- amidst a blurry avalanche of blastbeat-ridden deathrashola. Grandiose midtempo slog "Materialized in Stone" and artsy-fartsy, classically influenced, spoken word number "Opus Nocturne" (a bit of a stretch, yes, but admirable within the context of Marduk's output) are the standouts here, while "Sulphur Souls," "Autumnal Reaper," and too many others race by like highway traffic, occasionally meriting a reactionary nod or shrug, but little else. Sure, Marduk is worthy of some acclaim, having carried the flag for no-bones-about-it, punch-in-the-nose black metal since the early '90s, but the band always struggled to put together a consistently memorable album -- especially one that didn't use blastbeats as an ever-present creative crutch. Opus Nocturne, unfortunately, is no different.