Marduk "Opus Nocturne"

Opus Nocturne is the third studio album by Swedish black metal band Marduk. It was recorded and mixed at Hellspawn Studios in September 1994 and released that December by Osmose Productions. It was re-released in digipak format that included bonus rehearsal tracks on June 27, 2006. Opus Nocturne is the last Marduk album to feature Joakim Göthberg on vocals and Dan Swanö as mixer. 

Opus Nocturne was the first album to showcase Marduk's signature hyper-speed blast beat tempo, however it still contained much of the melody from Those of the Unlight while retaining this break-neck speed, instead of sheer brutality on albums like Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered and Nightwing.

"Materialized in Stone" was originally the title for the track "From the Dark Past" that appears on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, the title was changed by Per Yngve Ohlin before his death. Marduk later adopted the title for the song on this album. They had previously also used a song title by Ohlin on their album Those of the Unlight. This is considered a vague tribute to Per and his works.

Track listing

"Intro / The Appearance of Spirits of Darkness" (instrumental) 0:33

"Sulphur Souls" 5:41

"From Subterranean Throne Profound" 7:47

"Autumnal Reaper" 3:31

"Materialized in Stone" 5:10

"Wolves (Part 2: Untrodden Paths)" 5:27

"Opus Nocturne" 2:33

"Deme Quaden Thyrane" 5:06

"The Sun Has Failed" 7:22

Comes with an 8-page booklet.

"Opus Nocturne is a hymn to the night & it's beings".

Trivia: some lines in the lyrics for the song "Materialized in Stone" were extracted from the novel "Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood", by James Malcolm Rymer (1814–1884).

Warning - Osmose Productions CD presses dating from February 2001 up to around 2005 may contain a copy-protection method which renders the CD completely unreadable in PCs and certain modern Hi-Fi systems. This isn't indicated anywhere on the packaging.

Recording information:

Recorded at Unisound in September 1994.

Produced by Marduk.

Executive production by Osmose Productions.