Con questo disco gli svedesi Marduk vogliono omaggiare il grande Bathory (padre fondatore del black metal) e uno dei suoi album più importanti ovvero “Blood, Fire Death” seguendo una ben delineata trilogia fatta appunto di album.
Il primo è il sanguinario “Nightwing” il secondo il devastante “Panzer Division Marduk” ed infine il funereo “La Grande Danse Macabre”. Con questa recensione voglio prendere in considerazione “Nightwing” il primo della trilogia. Per prima cosa (per chi non lo sapesse) incominciamo a dire che i Marduk suonano un black metal di stampo svedese, ovvero sparatissimo, violentissimo e senza mezzi termini, con testi fortemente blasfemi e anticristiani.
Un fattore degno di nota è che questo disco è diviso in due parti, le prime cinque tracce sono ispirate totalmente al maligno. Si inizia con “Dictionnaire Infernal” breve intro strumentale che sembra preannunciare l’inizio di una tempesta ovvero “Bloodtide xxx” la seconda traccia sparatissima con batteria in blast-beat ad opera di Fredrik Andersson riff potenti e accattivanti e screaming straziante e dissacratorio di Legion. Il testo parla di adepti che si ritrovano in una oscura foresta ad invocare antiche divinità pagane sotto il vigile occhio di Satana. Il pezzo cambia verso la fine con dei ritmi incalzanti per fare da trampolino di lancio a “Of Hell’s Fire” . Canzone violenta con un riff vorticosi e dannatamente disarmonici la parte centrale di questo pezzo è devastante e il testo parla di totale devozione a Satana ovviamente. Il testo cita così: "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". La quarta traccia invece intitolata “Slay the Nazarene” come si evince dal titolo pezzo estremamente e disumanamente blasfemo all’inverosimile. La prima parte si conclude con la title-track “Nightwing” l’inizio è lento e tirato per poi esplodere in un brutale blast-beat accompagnato da un riff melodico e cattivo che si prolunga per l’intera durata del pezzo.
La seconda parte del disco si apre con un lento e sinuoso riff di chitarra di Morgan che ci catapulta nella Romania del '400 alla corte di Vlad III Tepes Dracul, agli inizi della sua carriera di re ed efferato assassino, quando con il fratello Radu (che diverrà presto l'amante favorito del sultano) viene abbandonato come "garanzia" di fedeltà presso i turchi dal padre Vlad II. L'aspetto musicale di questo pezzo è complesso, il più lento, più pesante ed oscuro quasi a voler evidenziare i sentimenti di odio che accrescevano nella mente del giovane Dracula al susseguirsi della morte del padre e del fratello Mircea. Il pezzo successivo è "Dracole Wayda" che si fonde perfettamente sulle ultime note della song precedente. Il ritmo fortemente cadenzato e i riff sanguigni accompagnano l’ascesa di Vlad tepes e i suoi desideri di potere. Amato dai suoi connazionali per aver sconfitto i turchi di Maometto Secondo e quanti altri ne minacciavano il suo paese, commise quelli che per noi sono crimini tremendi e dì fronte ai quali la nostra mente sensibile e moderna si ribella. Era noto tra l'altro con il nome di Tepes che in romeno significa "impalatore". L’impalamento era una forma di tortura/pena di morte che consisteva nel introdurre un palo aguzzo e di solito unto di miele nel retto del condannato per poi farlo uscire lentamente e delicatamente attraverso la bocca o la scapola cercando scrupolosamente di non danneggiare organi vitali. I più fortunati morivano subito (i soliti fortunati!!!) mentre per alcuni l’agonia poteva anche durare giorni e giorni. Quando Maometto Secondo fu sconfitto da Dracul venne fatto passare tra due ali di venticinquemila impalati turchi e bulgari. Vlad Tepes, aveva una vera passione per l'impalamento anche se la sua fantasia si sbizzarriva in altre piacevolezze. Vlad era solito assistere a tutte le torture da lui concepite e spesso organizzava banchetti all’aperto durante i quali venivano fatti impalare alcuni condannati per allietare il suo pasto e quello dei disgustati commensali (un po’ come il piano bar oggi). Questo è il tema della traccia “Kaziklu Bay the Lord Impaler” e della successiva “Deme Quaden Thyrane” la prima una canzone crudele con un furioso assalto di batteria chitarre graffianti e screaming strazianti, la seconda invece con un riff più malinconico e arpeggiato, il testo parla della cattura e del successivo processo per dannazione. La traccia conclusiva è “Anno domini 1476” dove una batteria con ritmo militare e un giro di chitarra dal suono saturo presagisce la fine del regno del terrore con la morte del conte Vlad. Il pezzo si conclude con una parte quasi lirica e con il ritmo di una sinistra e malinconica Mazurca.
Un album decisamente importante per la storia del black metal soprattutto per la sua varietà compositiva.
Elenco tracce testi e video
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
Carico i commenti... con calma