Bassist Magnus "Devo" Andersson has announced his departure from the Swedish black metal band MARDUK .
Andersson , who initially joined MARDUK in 1992 as the group's guitarist, made his exit official in a Facebook post earlier today (Sunday, December 29).
He wrote: "After a total of 17 years in MARDUK , 70 countries and almost 900 gigs, I decided to leave the band. I intend to concentrate more on the studio. I therefore wish the other members of MARDUK good luck in the future."
MARDUK 's latest album, "Viktoria" , was released in June 2018 via Century Media Records .
Guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson is the sole remaining member of MARDUK who played on the band's debut LP, 1992's "Dark Endless" .
In recent years, MARDUK has been plagued criticism for glorifying Nazi imagery and anti-Semitism, in part because of a fascism-friendly album titles like "Panzer Division Marduk" , which refers to WWII-era German tanks. The band's February 2017 concert in Oakland was shut down by the Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area group, which accused MARDUK of having "white supremacist ties" and pointed out that MARDUK 's 2015 album "Frontschwein" was written "entirely about the Third Reich."
