Marduk...The Beginning

Norrköping, Sweden's MARDUK is basically my favorite black metal band of all time.  They formed in 1990, with Morgan Steinmeyer Hakansson being the main driving force behind the band.  At the time of the band's formation, Jocke Gothberg (aka Joakim af Grave) was on drums, Richard Kalm was on bass, Andreas Axelson was on vocals, and the aforementioned Morgan was on guitars.  Their style was an old-school black metal style that relied heavily on early Bathory in terms of sound.  They released the infamous Fuck Me Jesus demo in 1991.

"Departure from the Mortals" is off of Fuck Me Jesus

Also in 1991, Marduk recorded a second demo, but it didn't see the light of day until 1997 as the Here's No Peace EP.  It was a continuation of the sound on the first demo, but with slightly different (some might say better) production.

"Within the Abyss" is from the Here's No Peace album/demo

1992 saw the release of Marduk's legendary first studio album, Dark Endless.  This is one of the true landmarks of early 1990s black metal, and one of the best Swedish black metal releases of all time.  Produced by Swedish genius Dan Swano, Dark Endless offers up a slab of black metal which contains elements of the old school but also hints toward the newer emerging sound of the 1990s at the same time.

"The Black" is one of Marduk's most well-known early songs

Marduk live in 1992

Since I am such a huge Marduk fan, I am going to have multiple Marduk entries in the future.  This is merely the beginning of the entries on these Swedish sonic extremists...

Discography of Marduk's early years:

Fuck Me Jesus (demo) (1991)

Here's No Peace (demo) (recorded 1991--released 1997)

Dark Endless (full-length) (1992)

Next time: IMPALED NAZARENE