Brutal and Suomi.
Finish band Morgal comes with their debut after a demo and two EP’s to showcase ignorance and infernality in a disc that clocks in at 35 minutes.
Formed by brothers SS Exiler (drums) and Lord Warmoon (vocals and bass) the band is completed by Crusher on guitars and the line-up continues solid to this day.
The great thing here is the riffs, as shown in the first track that start kicking everything with satanic fury. Called Golden Sun Of Satan the song has its share of melody but wait, this is not some delicate bull: this is real deal brutality in doses never seen before, and it’d be easy to classify them as some kind of “blackened death metal” outfit but the fact here is that they play fast and heavy as they can just like in the song Death Vortex that comes as a bulldozer, just smashing everything in sight like a rabid demon eager for your soul. What crazy openers!
One of the great surprises of the album is the track Flaming Mouth Of Baphomet played with class and gusto. Nothing can surpass with a grandiloquent first part that explodes in the fastest black metal destruction as the band hanker after more and more infernal fun and (like) addict demons ready only for violence and their black metal are akin to the speed metal of the past although this is not “blackened thrash” bullshit.
Gateways of Flesh & Blood is more bombastic ferocity mainly in the rabid vocals and the implacable riffs and at the end of the day, despite the extreme velocity it sounds very metal in its core making them one of the bands that never forgot where black metal comes from in the first place: from heavy metal.
But again, don’t be fooled: the strong melody on the closer called Mortifer doesn’t quite live up for its tranquility (although it is beautiful) and the song soon distills angry in vicious clobbers, although at the end of the day, this type of playing between metal and sheer brutality and satanic black metal are what makes this album so special.
At the end of the day, Morgal is one of the great surprises in a style that goes more and more to tranquility: they decided to get a U-turn and make things more brutal than the others, more metal than the majority and more importantly, more satanic than anything else this year. An album that one will not easily forget.
Nightmare Lord is out now on CD, LP, TAPE on Werewolf
Rating: 9,0/10
Roderick Blutrache
Dark Souls United 