Marduk - Plague Angel

Once, I took the night train from Zagreb to Llubljana. Thankfully, my sleeper car wasn't the "three seats facing three seats" kind that forces one to sleep while sitting too close to other annoyed, dehydrated strangers. Instead, its rooms had six bunks each, stacks of three with a space in between. The bunks were about one meter high, so one had to lie down. But it beat sleeping sitting up.

Throne of Rats
Steel Inferno

My room had three other inhabitants. Each was fat, middle-aged, and Balkan. They didn't speak Croatian - Slovenian, perhaps? At least two were friends. They drank beer, then disrobed to various degrees for bedtime, revealing round, practically pregnant bellies.

Falling asleep was a nightmare. The men snored in alto, tenor, basso, like a beached whale symphony. The man nearest me was the basso. I knew this because my noise-cancelling headphones cut out some of his jet-engine frequencies. Still, the noise was too much.

It was time for my secret weapon - Plague Angel (Blooddawn, 2004). Normally, I don't listen to this album. It's from Marduk's mediocre latter period, in which all they do is blast, blast, blast. The album is mastered way too loudly, so it's basically a wall of noise. But that makes it perfect for times like this. I dialed up "Steel Inferno," tucked myself in, and blissfully blasted the night away.