Marduk - Iron Dawn (EP)

May 30, 2011

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Iron Dawn (Regain, 2011) is a stopgap EP meant for sale on Marduk’s ongoing North American tour, dubbed Seven Bowls of Wrath. (Aura Noir, Black Anvil, HOD, and Panzerfaust support. See dates above.)

Yet it hangs together as a cohesive unit, I think. I say, “I think” because evidently this EP is conceptually separate from Marduk’s upcoming album. However, without the lyrics, I don’t know what the concept is. (I admit I did not request the lyrics for this release due to fatigue. When I request lyrics (which, really, should come with every promo like they did when promos were CDs), my success rate is dishearteningly low. Recently a publicist at a major metal label flat-out denied my request for lyrics for several notable releases. Incredible!)

But we have clues.

The cover nods to Marduk’s fastest, most militant record, Panzer Division Marduk (which recently got a deluxe 7″ pic disc box set treatment).

“Warschau 2” is very much blitzkrieg, down to the sirens overlaying the track. In World War II, the Germans installed “Jericho trumpets”, noise-making propellers, on Junkers Ju 87 aircraft that enhanced the intimidation factor of dive bombing (hear the sound here). The sirens here work likewise. Vocalist Mortuus repeatedly invokes “Warschau”, harking back to the original song on Plague Angel about total annihilation.

The other two song titles, “Drumbeats of Death” and “Blood and Sunflowers” are also suggestive. The latter perhaps refers to this minute-plus animated short. Given its dirge-y, smoke-over-a-battlefield quality, I’d wager that this EP is about war.

This is appropriate for whom I consider the most forceful black metal band today. Marduk aren’t the conceptually deepest or most musically interesting band in black metal, but no band brings the storm like them. They don’t play to crowds so much as play at them. I like that.

— Cosmo Lee

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HEAR IRON DAWN

“Warschau 2”