Year of release: 2018
Label: Century Media Records
Rating: 4,5 / 10
You know, I'm amazed by the wild hype which still stands around the band whose studio albums have turned into miserable garbage long ago. I understand that MARDUK is a non-malfunctioning machine of war with a lot of really legendary records behind it. Hell, they should have a monument with their name carved on it for "Panzer Division Marduk"! But albums as "Viktoria" are just ridiculous. This time promo tracks, which aroused suspicion even among the most ardent fans, were very revealing. The 16th (!) Full-length of the Swedes is really that bad, and there is no hope for it.
Judging by what I hear, there is not much work invested in "Viktoria". The songs are a familiar set of vigorous militant blasting and deadly boring slow bullshit. Quality of compositions is terrible. The whole album has only 3-4 memorable fragment (special attention to the awry bass solo on the title track), and the rest is a long-tormented templates. I will add also stupid "oh-oh-oh-oh" of Mortuus from "June 44" a kind of absurd comedy, which I have not exactly been waiting for. Everything is poor, bad, standard and lazy. But sound is the thing that really deserves a huge tub of shit (again!). It was broken a long time ago - "Plague Angel" was perceived as a solid gray mass after FAT "World Funeral", and it was already 14 years ago. But then it became clear that "Plague Angel" is far from the worst record, and it is quite possible to listen to it. Because "Rom 5:12" was bad, and "Wormwood" was a nightmare. "Serpent Sermon" gave a frail hope for a lumen, but after "Frontschwein" it was finally clear: MARDUK prefer to play with plastic toys, giving all the metal parts to more competent bands. The sound of "Viktoria" is weak, like a child with cancer at the last stage. It kills the little good that is present in the songs. The guitar sound reminds me of the musculature of the ideological enemy of the group, a typical German antifascist, because it is simply absent. The buzzing strum that they reproduce here is not the sound of electric guitars, it's just shit. What kind of victoria, what "Tigers" and werewolves? This album is more like a soundtrack to the advertising of LEGO and plastic rattles. Honestly, MARDUK can be saved only if they officially recognize their national-socialist beliefs, as it will quickly make everyone forget about their creative impotence. And I will maybe even buy all their CDs just to support them, haha!
P.S. The new FUNERAL MIST, very similar to the latest works of MARDUK, turned out to be five times greater. You better listen to it.
English (UK) 
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