What is this? It's strange, yet completely awesome. This short, five track EP is Marduk playing thrash songs. And I have to say it's one of the most thrilling little albums I've heard. Released after the (decade long) misstep of hiring Fredrik Andersson, one of the most boring, talentless, horrible drummers to ever be born, Glorification stands out as one of the few moments where he doesn’t demonstrate his love of blasts excessively. Even on his first performance, Opus Nocturne, where the band still had quite a lot of mid paced stuff, and the band didn't really get into their non-stop attack phase until the album preceding this EP, he was already playing far too many generic blast beats. Those albums still kicked as because of everything apart from that monkey, but it was irritating. So it's nice to hear that he is physically capable of not blasting 100% of the time. Yeah, he did have to play other musicians music to do so, but that's just technicalities.
Glorification, is it itself, capable of being quite an uninteresting listen, it's one remixed song from just two months prior, and four covers. Two of which from the same band. The remix is a solid track, but not terribly different from the full-length version. Still bursting out of the edges with too much blast, a few parts sound mildly different, but there's still the same tempos, and same vocal delivery. The other black metal song, a Bathory cover, loses the charm of the original, because of the band going a little too far over the top on the heaviness. And again, the opportunity of mid paced blasting is seized upon with glee by Andersson.
Where this album shines is in the thrash songs. That's right, not the black metal, but the thrash. Now, I haven't heard ANY of these thrash songs, I've heard "Eternal Devastation" by Destruction, which was good, because the guitar work was great, but the vocals were annoying, and the production made the guitars sound awkward and irritating, so I just never bothered getting into it. Basing my idea of how "Total Desaster" would sound on those songs, Marduk take the awesome riffs, blacken the hell out of them and make them more awesome, and the replace the bad vocalist with Legion, who vomits even more copious amounts of awesome into the song. The solo is stunning, the riffs are amazing, and the energy on offer is among the best you'll hear. Easily the standout of the release.
The other two thrashers, both from Piledriver, a band I've never heard, are not quite as good, and to be honest, don't sound like the type of thrash I would usually listen to. But are still saved by the "Marduk-ing" they receive. Which involves making everything far heavier, overall clean sounding, with enough scratchy roughness to sound to still maintain the soul. The first, Sex with Satan, is quite mid paced and sleazy sounding, and the band plays it well, Although, it just doesn't sound right coming from the band, Legions vocals are too harsh for the song, although the scratchy production makes them more bearable, but it just doesn't quite sound exciting enough compared to the rest of the album.. While the second is a faster, more direct thrasher, brimming with opportunity for the band to tear you an new asshole. Complete with brilliant lyrics. Total headbanger this one.
Sure, this album is at its core a very quickly thrown together little cover EP, despite the very nice production. But this is still very good. The band makes the thrash songs their own and just adds a lot of character to them. The black metal side is admittedly less impressive, with one of the songs being just a minor remix, and the other not as good as the original, despite a possible improvement in the vocal department. As far as cover EPs go, this is near the top.
Sample:
💀 Marduk - Glorification (1996) EP [Full Album] 💀
