The new year came with new luck for the metal brotherhood - the long-awaited show of the fierce Marduk took place in Sofia, Bulgaria after their unsuccessful attempt at making it in the last months of 2007.

The supporting bands in this part of the tour of the Swedes were absolutely praiseworthy for doing the hard job to warm up the audience before the performance of the main band.

For the opening of the butchery on the ninth day of January 2008 the chosen ones were Artisian - the first young and unknown band from England, which we met from the concert. Their playing started an hour after the announced beginning with powerful sound and smashing black metal. The trio was looking great on the stage and in spite of their static behaviour they impressed the thickening multitude. Many people were still outside the Black Box Club, but in front of Artisian there were 200 people. Without compromises, very energetically, the guys fired about ten songsВ in 25 minutes and left the stage without useless delay. Minutes later it was decorated with something similar to set-scenes with the distinctive signs of the second band for the night...

The nippers of Zonaria, like their colleagues, rushed forward playing on a good speed. I call them like that because of their average age of 20 years. Hardly many people noticed that the boys did their first attemptsВ at playing five or six years ago, because their performance was brilliant. The sounding was more melodic than the oneВ of the other three bandsВ on this tour, yet at the same time heavy enough. Hypocrisy-alike death metal was served, tasted and finished up in the next half an hour.В With the pleased screaming of the fans was put the end of this part of the show and then came the time for the more experienced metal artillery...

In Battle were great on the chosen place for them and succeeded to warm up the people for the upcoming brutality. With their bald heads, the musicians were headbanging like one hundred long-haired men. The inspired frontman John Sandin was enjoying the time jumping around the stage. Between his enthusiastic cramps he sang his vocals and as support of his effort he received professional helpВ from his colleagues.

In spite of the great job all of the supporting bands did, without any doubt the most expected appearance was Marduk’s. It was executed under the sound of an epic intro with the accompaniment of the wild shouts of the slightly swelled audience. There were still some empty places at the Black Box when the lights changed and on the small stage one by one came the musicians. From here on the start of an inhuman ritual was given - the typical for the Swedes butcher drum swaths, the drone sound of the bass and the guitar rape with the sombre voice of Mortuus grabbed the crowd in its satanic lock. Because of the prominent tempo the number of the songs got lost from the beginning...

Not many of the people in the club can describe in details what happened to them between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. on January 9, 2008. Some songs from the current album “Rom 5:12” were played gallimaufry with many of the (g)old compositions from the first albums of the band. Marduk vanished the small good parts in our souls to the bitter end.

With this extreme metal concert was given the beginning of a year in which many expect to see their favorite musicians in Bulgaria. This event deserves praise not only because of the charismatic attendance of the bands, but because of its perfectly balanced sound and goodВ В  organization, which certainly make it a brilliant concert start of the year 2008.

Words:В Boyana AtanassovaВ / Tangra Mega Rock

Photos:В Victor AlexandrovВ / Tangra Mega Rock

More photos are available in the GALLERY.