Fuck Me Jesus

In 1991, Marduk played a blistering form of blackened death metal. They sounded nothing like the speedy black metal band of later recordings. Marduk only released one demo, which was unusual for a Swedish death metal band of the time, most of whom were stacked with pre-album output. That demo, "Fuck Me Jesus", is good. I like this evil style of Swedish death metal; keyboards, hard riffs, rasping vocals. It differed to the punky vibes of more famous death metal bands like Entombed and Dismember. The originator of this underground Swedish ‘blackened’ style was undeniably Grotesque (particularly their "Incantation" EP), Marduk also played their part in its development (along with Darkified and Necrophobic).

The music on this demo will be familiar to anyone who has heard the band's debut album ("Dark Endless"). All three songs would later appear on the album. They all sound better here. There is magic in the underground production that blurs the boundaries between one riff and the next. It creates a seamless feel. The sound is rawer and fuzzier than on the album, and has an earthiness that the album lacks. This is one of Dan Swanö's earliest recording jobs, and he was finding his feet as a producer here. He named his studio 'Gorysound' instead of the more professional ‘Unisound’ in these early days. I get the sense that Swanö was looking to Tomas Skogberg (at Studio Sunlight) for inspiration when he recorded this, but he also had an emergent trademark sound of his own.

None of the three songs on here are compositional masterpieces. They are just solid, evil death metal tunes. They are packed with creepy melodies and hard riffs, and none of them outstay their welcome. The best of the three is probably "Departure from the Mortals" by virtue of it being the most recognisable. My favourite riffs appear on "Within the Abyss" though, which has a mean, bass-led stomp and some real doom-laden vibes towards the end. My only criticism of this demo is the pointless intro/outro, which is annoying and only dampens the atmosphere. At least they were cut as separate tracks which means they can be skipped.

This demo rivals "Opus Nocturne" as my favourite Marduk recording. There were not too many bands making this kind of death metal back then, and surprisingly few have done it since. Marduk also lost this brooding, sinister vibe when they became a black metal band. "Fuck Me Jesus" may not sound as unhinged as the mighty Grotesque, but I would put it on par with Darkified's excellent "Sleep Forever" seven-inch from the following year. This is an overlooked demo in the history of Swedish death metal. If you're working your way through the archives then make sure you don’t skip over this one.

A powerful beginning to an epic black metal band's discography, Marduk's "Fuck Me Jesus" shocks and surprises with a barrage of occult sound designed for the avid black metal listener. Even before you hear the music, this demo sparks curiosity with highly blasphemous artwork and song titles. The intro "Fuck Me Jesus" sound sample is pulled from "The Exorcist" (horror movie, 1973) which was an inspiration for the demo title and lyrical themes of the music. This demo surprised me, I wasn't expecting any miracles based on the fact that this was Marduk's first attempt at recording music, but I was happily surprised to find that this is some of their best work to date.

From a music theory standpoint, "Fuck Me Jesus" demonstrates many musical qualities that are commonly associated with black metal today, but were still emerging concepts in the black metal world at the time of it's initial release in 1991. For example, we hear use of diminished, minor, and harmonic minor scales, blast beats, tremolo picking, blasphemous lyrics and artwork, scratchy vocals, and last but not least, poor production quality. I personally find that the way the snare drum rings with every hit reminds me of a deep underground hell-like cave, this is well demonstrated at the beginning of the track "Departure From The Mortals".

I would strongly recommend "Fuck Me Jesus" to anyone interested in black metal, especially those interested in it's early stages in Europe. Many fans often steer clear of early demos and EPs from bands because full-length studio albums are generally better and more recognized. This demo is one that no one should miss hearing and, I might even go so far as to say that it is superior to some of Marduk's later full-length studio albums. I find that it's only real weak point is that it is in fact a demo and isn't very long, I would have liked to see more length to "Fuck Me Jesus". However my wishes have been half-granted, there have been several reissues/re-releases of this demo since 1991. My favorite re-release of "Fuck Me Jesus" was that from Osmose Productions in 1999. It was longer and the flow of the last track into the extended portion of the album is beautiful and seriously badass!

I give Marduk's 1991 demo "Fuck Me Jesus" a 90%, it is truly an occult classic.

It’s a rather well-known fact that Morgan Håkansson created Marduk as a means to create the most blasphemous music ever. I can safely say that with his first demo and later EP Fuck Me Jesus, he succeeded. Fuck Me Jesus probably has one of the most anti-Christian covers in the history of black metal (and as you can imagine, that’s up against some pretty stiff competition), not to mention the title itself. Now let’s get to the musical content of this evil little EP.

The intro is also the title track and, clocking at 38 seconds, it contains a sample from the first Exorcist movie. You know, that family-friendly scene where the girl possessed by the demon yells “Let Jesus Fuck You” and “Lick Me” several times along with some evil yells. Suitable intro for this kind of thing really.

The main part of this EP is made up of the three “real” tracks, Departure From the Mortals, The Black and Within the Abyss. These are the first songs ever written by Marduk and are all featured on their first full-length album, Dark Endless. All three are great songs, very well-played. Andreas Axxelsson’s vocals are excellent on this debut, as is Morgan’s guitar playing and the drums heard here are very similar to what we’ll get on later Marduk albums (the first few ones at least), although obviously with much worse production.

In fact that’s the only difference between the tracks here and their counterparts on Dark Endless: the production. It’s a lot worse here (what a surprise) and makes them sound even more grim here than on the album.

The rest of the EP contains the outro, Shut Up And Suffer, a keyboard version of the track “Opus Nocturne” and very beautiful minute of music actually. It’s really very good.
And if, like me, you have the re-release with the bonus tracks you’ll get the title track from the Dark Endless album as well as two Bathory covers: In Conspiracy With Satan and Women Of Dark Desires. Dark Endless is a pretty good track again and so is the first Bathory cover. What really stands out here however is Women Of Dark Desires. Now I’m going to have to admit that I haven’t listened to any Bathory yet but if this track is anything to go by, I’m missing a hell of a lot. The main riff on this track is extremely catchy and the vocals are also excellent.

So is Fuck Me Jesus worth getting? You bet. While it doesn’t actually contain any exclusive tracks it’s still an important part of Marduk’s history and really shows them at their very beginning. Plus, who can resist a cover with a naked woman sticking a crucifix up her pussy. Timeless. Get this as it’s good, grim and most definitely evil as fuck. Let Jesus Fuck You!!

For the three songs on here (I'm not reviewing the bonus tracks), this is a pretty solid piece of work. Sadly, it's too short, and with the keyboard outro just being "Opus Nocturne" played on keys, and an intro lifted from The Exorcist, you are only left with three songs from Marduk's debut album. And what's more, this is not the Marduk that put out Those of the Unlight, what I feel is their best work. But is it bad? Fuck no!

For the most part, this is grim death metal. The guitars are downtuned, and with that Swedish fuzz so typical of other bands of the same era, you definately know where and when this was created. Amazingly, the songs have quite a lot of real heaviness, and Marduk changes tempos quite often. The doomy parts on "Departure from the Mortals" and "Within the Abyss" are utterly evil sounding. The drumming has rather sharp quality to it, making it powerful and mean sounding.

Andreas Axelsson is the vocalist on here, and he does an excellent job, I feel. His vocals are the typcial black metal screech, but a little more juicy and bloody. This further enhances the evil atmosphere of the album.

Overall, this is not necessary, but highly enjoyable. Stylistically, quite similar to Darkthrone's Soulside Journey.

Morgan Håkansson had a dream: To form the heaviest and most blasphemous band ever. Thereupon he founded Marduk. This is one of their first demos, and it is certainly a big step towards that purpose. Heavy? Quite. Blasphemous? Hell yes.
The title of this demo (Actually, The re-released version has three bonus tracks, so worthy of being called an EP) isn't very Catholic, nor is the Album cover. This is what Marduk is all about, trying to shock people and be as bible bashing and as evil as they can be.
Quite fittingly, the EP starts with a notorious fragment from the film 'The Exorcist'. We all know this part, it's when the girl plies the Holy Cross quite creatively, yet indecently. Screaming "Lick me, Lick me !" and "Let Jesus Fuck you" combined with frightened screams and the sound of breaking objects, this is quite the intro.
One might expect that this CD would be sheer brutality and speed in a very monotonous way. But no, this CD contains more than that. While it can be quite fast and heavy, there are a lot of tempo changes. It can slow down to Doom Metal pace and then break out into blast beats again. The first real song 'Departure from the Mortals' even has a haunting keyboard intermezzo. The sound of the guitars is really sharp and fuzzy. The bass is quite prominent, which leads to a low, dark overall sound. The actual demo surprisingly ends with an epic keyboard/strings piece. The bonus tracks on the re-released EP are a welcome addition to the demo. You can really hear that they are playing in a different style, more Black Metal sounding, faster, high pitched. Still good though.
The last two songs are Bathory covers and they're both very enjoyable. Fast and Raw.

In conclusion : This CD is one evil piece of Metal, songs about Satan, trying to create an evil atmosphere and shocking the less evil amongst us. While doing so, they actually bring out some good songs and an enjoyable EP. Recommended to Marduk Fans and Black Metal Fans. (Or Horror Film Fans who want to shock their parents )

This is my first encounter with Marduk, it has become an instant favorite. Despite what others say about this amazing band, i feel that this is a really good demo, much better than the later works that Marduk has performed and written. Most people say that all Marduk is just plain out boring, overly fast the entire time, and poor drumming, is this true for Fuck Me Jesus? Definitely not true, Marduk uses climaxes in their music, the song begins with a slow pace, quickly builds up, everything is non peaceful... Then... It is back down to its normal, slow, pace. Pure climaxe in the music of Marduk. Surprisingly this doesnt get old, you would think that it would, each song starting off less fast and at the end attaining the highest speed on the track, but it does not. Now more on the album, starts off with a rather hilarious sound clip from a movie, i would like to find out what movie this is because its damn funny, some guy yelling about fucking and Jesus etc while some girl cries. Most interesting soundclip! After this track we come to the more brutal/epic noises of Marduk. Rest of this album, Fuck Me Jesus, is just amazing, this is the stuff black metal should be! The drumming kicks arsch, never a dull moment. And the guitars, interesting riffs, very original. As for the singing, also very interesting but still the common black metal vocals as usual, but, as i said interesting and quite good for a Swedish Black Metal group. After the normal tracks we come to a cover song of Bathorys, In Conspiracy With Satan. No Marduk doesnt top it, Bathorys version will always be much better than this cover, but still a good song to cover and i dont know of any other band who can outdo Marduk's cover of In Conspiracy With Satan. The last track is Woman of Dark Desires, it to is also originally a track done by Bathory. Marduk's version of this track is less sloppy and more refined than the original by Bathory, i know that some will read this and tell me i am wrong, but i have done "tests", listened to both tracks on the computer, the one by Bathory, and the one by Marduk, and in the end, like i had just said, Marduk plays less sloppy and more refined. If interested in listening to Marduk i suggest this album but since it being rare and hard to attain, you will need either patience or Soulseek. All other Marduk albums completely fail to overshadow this demo's style.

Marduk are the basic definition of sub par in the black metal genre. While the vocals stand powerful and decent the rest of the album is very lacking in all aspects: Atmosphere, Harshness, and all that makes black metal what it is. It's basically a blur from start to end with only changes in tempo. Randomly Marduk seems to enjoy going fast then slowing down to a doom metal speed, picking it back up, and dropping yet again.

This performance is very dull and lacking in every aspect of the black metal catalogue. Other than the vocals i found nothing interesting or enjoyable about the demo. Just a bunch of lame riffs, decent vocals, decent drumming, and the lack of atmosphere or anything that makes black metal interesting. After hearing later marduk releases are even worse i'd suggest not bothering with this album much less the band.