"Nightwing" was the fourth album by Marduk that I got to know and besides "World Funeral" it is my favourite up to date. It was the first time that I found an album of a Black Metal band truely epic and hymnic without them using a keyboard or an orchestra. They are using just three instruments and with them they are creating an evil, dark atmosphere that graps you by the throat and holds you there until the end of the last track.
The first four tracks (actually tracks two to four, because track one is only an intro) are the generic "Satan... grwuff... evil... kill god... sacrifice virgin"-stuff one would expect from a Black Metal band, but (just if the last words sounded kind of negative) those songs are great. They are executed perfectly with great guitar-riffing, precise drumming, a bass that one can more feel than hear and Legions godlike vocals. (Kind of strange in this context, isn't it?)
Chapter I - Dictionnaire Infernal
No. Title Length
1. "Preludium" 2:09
2. "Bloodtide (XXX)" 6:43
3. "Of Hells Fire" 5:22
4. "Slay the Nazarene" 3:48
5. "Nightwing" 7:34
Chapter II - The Warlord of Wallachia
No. Title Length
6. "Dreams of Blood and Iron" 6:19
7. "Dracole Wayda" 4:07
8. "Kaziklu Bey (The Lord Impaler)" 4:02
9. "Deme Quaden Thyrane" 5:06
10. "Anno Domini 1476" 2:13
But then the whole concept of the album changes when the hymnic riff of "Nightwing" comes out of the boxes and evolves into Legions great memorable scream "Nightwing, fly across the sky". From this point on there's no more "Satan... grwuff... (you know what I mean)"-stuff. The new main-character of Marduks unholy opera is Vlad the Impaler. Hold on, before you say "Aww, shit, only melo-black-pussies deal with this vampire-stuff", because this is not about vampires, this is about the Kaziklu Bey, the romanian national hero, not the guy created by Bram Stoker. The six tracks tell the story of Vlad and his war against the turks to his death in 1476. The musical style stays the same during this part of the album (except the last rack, "Anno Domini 1476", that sounds a bit like a march with distorted guitars), the lyrics change to (well written - something one can not always expect from swedish bands) tales of war and bloodshed during the 15th century. So even if there are two "parts" of this album, it sounds very homogene. And let me tell you: it sounds great.
On Nightwing, the theme is blood, divided in two parts: The first in the satanic ways customary of Marduk's lyrics, but the second part tells the history of Vlad 'Tepes' Drakul, the Impaler of Wallachia who fought against the Ottoman invasion on Europe, giving continuity to the history started on "Deme Quaden Thyrane", a track from their third studio album, Opus Nocturne, and continued with "Dracul Va Domni Din Nou In Transylvania" from Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered. "Deme Quaden Thyrane" appears also here, rearranged, with Legion's vocals and a little change in the lyrics at the end. The final song of the album, "Anno Domini 1476", ends with a sample from the fascist march "La Lupta Muncitori" ("The Legionary Worker's march") by the Romanian Iron Guard, a violently anti-semitic and pro-Nazi organization whose aim was to exterminate the Jews and socialists in the country and took part in the Holocaust during the second world war.
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