La Grande Danse Macabre
What can I say? This one is a fucking masterpiece from beginning to end. Produced by the band under their own label, the sound quality and musicianship is perhaps the best I've ever heard (although Panzer certainly rivals it for it's brutality and grit). The intro f-major scale with a raised fourth sets up a hellishly fast "Azrael," I love the way the vocal line was written! The guitar part on "Pompa Funebris 1660" is perfect for drinking a beer and partying, and continues strongly into "Obedience Unto Death" (I love the rhythm on that one).
Then we come to one of my very favorite songs, "Unholy Bonds of Matrimony." This was the first one I could pick out the lyrics to, and the vocal line is melodic and brutal. The lyrics rule, there's lines like, "who dares misery love and hug the form of death dance on destruction's dance" which makes a play on the title track, "La Grande Danse Macabre." The Danse Macabre was a frenzied dance dating back to the middle ages and pagan times. People would gather in a churchyard where people were buried to dance and communicate with the dead.
The title track is so heavy and layered, when you hear Legion screaming, "La Grande Danse Macabre," it's fucking awesome! It ends in a really cool chorus in Swedish, I gotta get my boyfriend to translate it for me and teach me the pronunciation. My favorite lyric is "die die die you must." \m/
"Death Sex Ejaculation" has perhaps one of the best choruses ever written: "twisting, turning, crying, praying, screaming, dying, blood is spraying death sex ejaculation" with a cool guitar bass intro to the chorus.
"Funeral Bitch" is probably my favorite Marduk song, I think it is one of the most sexual songs, too, I can't tell if there's a guy that's spying on the girl and wants to fuck her or if the girl just wants to become a necrophiliac. It's a pretty cool song!
Summer's End has got some pretty awesome riffs, it makes me want to learn the guitar. Also B.War pretty much kicks serious ass on this whole album--I think he's the star on this one. The closing song, "Jesus Christ Sodomized" is an anthem song that sums up the band's anti-Christian theme from the beginning. Buy this album as soon as possible.