Stepping into a new direction Marduk delivers a mature and conscious black album that may lack on aggression as did previous records, but focuses on melodies and riffs that go beyond the mayhem created by their previous and void release “Plague Angel”.
You have to be careful thou because Rom 5:12 brings back some of the characteristics that made the band in their early beginnings an outfit to watch out for; maybe a good glance of what the band recorded in Dark Endless mixed with a more “progressive” structure, catchy riffs and mid tempo sections that help the listener get into the evil and dirty display of Mortuus, is true that his voice is not at all one of the best in black metal yet it does provide an extra layer in the album that despite the nice, clean production remains dirty and evil.
The album displays the two side the band has shifted from in the past; their relentless blastbeating mayhem (done with layers of a more rock n’ roll attitude than anything else) and the more mid tempo dark pieces that create a slow motion panic attack pushing you into the realization that this might be Marduk’s best album.
1651 a slow atmospheric track created by Arditi and Marduk serves as a good resting stop on an album full of accelerations and changes, and that piece might be the single most important prove that Marduk has decided to think before they act, to focus more on the riffs than the violence their blastbeats can propagate .
With two guest vocal appearance, been Naihmass Nemtheanga from Primordial on "Accuser / Opposer" the best of those two since Joakim Göthberg (former Marduk singer) on "Cold Mouth Prayer" really doesn’t provide anything to a song Mortuus could have perform himself, maybe a more “nostalgic” adventure than anything else; Rom 5:12 explores sounds and tempos that Marduk had relegated to their past and include new ideas for the future, lets just hope the Swedes maintain the intensity and hunger for rediscovery on future albums.
