MARDUK - PLAGUE ANGEL (2004)

Gatefold release of “Plague Angel” on a clear vinyl reissue comes with a poster (see picture below for size) just recently released on Century Media. It's also available on a standard black vinyl there's also a "gold" variant I've heard different numbers concerning the number of copies for each version 200 copies for the gold one and 200-300 copies for the clear one but don't know for certain.

It was thanks to @valdgir on Instagram I’m even aware of this release because of his post of their reissued live album “Warschau” (2005). Started to investigate further and found out “Plague Angel” was also reissued. Don't know why Marduk doesn't write anything on their Instagram, homepage or anywhere that this was being released. Thanks to my post on Instagram I learned that "Rom 5:12" (2007) and "Wormwood" (2009) will also be released soon since I don't have any of them on vinyl it's a definite buy. There's a couple of different release dates I've seen for those two reissues but hope for March 30th.

A couple of months ago I ranked all the Marduk full length albums see an earlier post for that. “Plague Angel” was ranked at number 4 and I still stand by that it cannot compete with “Opus Nocturne” or “Those of the Unlight”. The choice for number 3 was the hardest on the whole list, but I still think Mortuus 2nd studio album with Marduk “Rom 5:12” is slightly better. 

When Marduk replaced Legion with Arioch/Mortuus from Funeral Mist (probably my favorite band ever) it was the best choice they could’ve made because he has the best voice in the scene of all time in my opinion. I also think that recording with former guitarist (1992-94) now bassist Devo Andersson in his Endarker Studio was a good change from Peter Tägtgren and The Abyss Studio.

I’m not putting him down but Marduk was beginning to sound a bit uninspired and stale. The production on this one was their best since the Dan Swanö days and the material is amazing on “Plague Angel” songs like Seven Angels Seven Trumpets; Throne of Rats; The Hangman of Prague; Warschau; Perish In Flames; Steel Inferno  etc. 

I've already ranked all of the bands full length studio albums and also their live albums see on Instagram @herr_black_metal this was before I owned the 4 the official live bootlegs. Well 2 of them are only full length I'm not sure if they should compete with professional live recordings. But I do recommend them to die hard Marduk fans that was brought up on cassette-tapes or VHS live recordings of concerts from the early to mid 90's. The sound quality is like what you'd expect from any bootleg recording.  

“Plague Angel” is a must have album and it’s a great album to start with if you’re unfamiliar with Marduk.