A barrage of black metal with a devastating aftermath! Marduk’s fourth album came around 1996 to reshape the more “classic” sound of BM, and provide new force with a speed oriented notion that kept its black promises but elevated the level of intensity into a realm of mayhem very few fans had witness before.

Putting aside the raw, bad produced albums of the past, “Heaven Shall Burn...When We Are Gathered” demonstrates that dirty sound recordings is not a “must” for black metal; as this albums clearly shows, it’s all about the intensity of the riffs and the right attitude the ones that govern good BM. Marduk retains all the “classic” elements by which the genre has survived and attracted millions of fans, blasphemy, darkness, aggression, that certain organic feeling that makes BM sound so true and pure, that reminds us of the golden Punk era in the UK before metal came into play and merge in between the band comes forth with just enough ideas and riffs to make the album stand the test of time; “The Black Tormentor Of Satan” caries you with a distinct riff, an almost melodic ear catching guitar line that is only improved by the following song “Dracul Va Domni Din Nou In Transilvania”, a slower track, that allows the record to grow beyond the abominable speed it had until that moment.

The original released like mention before was made on 1996, and now Regain Records has re launched the album, with a new album cover and four bonus tracks, all of them demos from songs in the album; normally I’ll deem this entries as unnecessary, but in this case those demo tracks provide an alternative look as how the record could have sounded if released with the classic standard raw, dirty, bad sounding production some BM fans love so much, and guess what? The songs still work, production or no production the riffs are good enough as the take on the listener even after stripping them of the thickness provided by a great Remastered version.

If don’t have the original, or if you are choosing between the classic release and this Regain version, I have to admit it is quite a complicated choice to make, but the extra songs on this 2007 version are really worth the risk… so take it!