Reviews list for Marduk - Those of the Unlight (1993)

I have been taking some much needed time off from work this week and have used some of the time to focus on some more critical listening of albums that I have never really gotten on with.  The sophomore from Marduk following the death metal laden debut from some three years earlier has never lived up to the expectations set by peers that was the band's magnum opus.  Whilst I can fully accept that Those of the Unlight is an all round improvement in terms of musicianship and songwriting it is still not an out and out black metal album to my ears.  Granting some slack for it being only their second full-length release, there is still a sense for me of Marduk somehow not doing black metal properly on this record.

The legacy death metal elements that lurk around and punctuate Those of the Unlight are confined to the random explosion of leads that just do not fit on a black metal album.  Whilst we are most certainly not in Panzer Division Marduk mode at this early stage of their career nor are we churning out a worthy competitor to Pure Holocaust, Det som engang var or Under a Funeral Moon either.  That is not to say that I am shitcanning Those of the Unlight, it is not a bad record, just one on which the transition to full blown black metal had yet to be completed at this stage.  Dare I say it that for a black metal record - let alone a Marduk record - it is quite tame and a bit boring in places.   It somehow sounds like black metal only done half-right, occupying this odd environment where it is knocking at the door of bm most definitely but sounds more gothic in places than I would exepct it to. 

There are plus points though.  The audible bass that you can track across more or less all tracks is a bonus that exudes confidence and maturity.  The pacing is much better controlled overall also; gone is the feeling of Marduk's own music racing away with them and leaving them playing a crude game of catch up with themselves.  It is a flawed record though because it can literally pass me by without me finding anything truly amazing, or all that consistent to grab my attention with.  The hype I hear surrounding it probably has not helped but I just do not see the high accolades this record gets as being accurate.

Marduk at their height were a full-on assault of unrelenting, martial brutality masquerading as a black metal band. Albums like Panzer Division Marduk and Plague Angel are exhilharating adrenaline-rushes that display little variation but are addictive as hell to those who love an all-out blastathon and just need a hit of aggression and nihilistic fervour. Yet this wasn't always the case with the Swedish black metal titans. Ten months after the blackened death metal of Dark Endless was released they unleashed their sophomore, Those of the Unlight, which is a huge improvement on the debut in my opinion, but is very different from their later, more well-known material. With Those of the Unlight Marduk tread a far more varied and melodic path than they would on later releases. There is an ambition to the songwriting that they lost once they had settled on their identity and the direction they wished to take. The melody on Wolves could well be whistling around in your head for days after hearing it and most of the songs feature some degree of development without constantly bursting out of the blocks. This doesn't mean this is a "tame" album, they still let rip fairly often - On Darkened Wings for example contains some intense blasting for sure, but it also has a nicely ominous atmosphere that is allowed to build and offers contrast to the aggressive passages when they hit, resulting in a more satisfying payoff. Those of the Unlight even features an ambient piece which, let's face it, would be completely out of character for later Marduk and despite my oft-touted aversion to a lot of ambient stuff on black metal albums, Echoes From the Past actually works really nicely here.

The thing is that Marduk at their best are kind of unbeatable when it comes to relentless blasting, but Those of the Unlight also illustrates a band that have more than that to offer. I would never want to be without Panzer Division Marduk, it is one of my all-time favourite black metal albums, but Marduk also produced some rather unimpressive releases in similar vein and it would have been nice to hear them stretch their wings at some point too and realise the potential they showed with Those of the Unlight rather than just regurgitating the same tropes time and again. I guess there's still time, but with every lacklustre attempt to reproduce PDM it seems less and less likely.

Before Marduk became a hyper-fast, relentless, battering machine, they produced a more melodic form of black metal in the vein of countrymates Dissection. Those of the Unlight is the only album (with the possible exception of Opus Nocturne) by the band where this comparison can be made and I have to say that it stands out in their discography for having the most creativity, with later albums falling into strong yet repetitive patterns. Those of the Unlight focuses on atmospheric, melodic riffs while still containing blast beats and vicious black metal vocals. It throws several curve balls over the 37 minutes running time and is entirely successful at what it does. Other things to note are that the bass is audible and an instrumental part of the album, which can't be said for a lot of their other albums, plus the leads are surprisingly ok.

Even though I obviously like it a lot, I'm certainly not suggesting that Those of the Unlight is Marduk's best album. The band would go on to produce some cracking releases in the next few years that while not being particularly creative, would be thoroughly absorbing for their intensity and brutality alone. But Those of the Unlight deserves attention by even those that don't enjoy the more recent output. Tracks such as the awesome title track, Wolves, On Darkened Wings and the surprisingly beautiful ambient instrumental Echoes from the Past offer masses of entertainment for any black metal fan and it's a great starting point for anyone new to the band. Check it out!