Nuclear Abominations
Brutal Deathgore publication since 1995 | 1164124 stabs in the skull.

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MORTIFILIA (Cze): "Redemption" Cd 2006 Mondongo Canibale

Review by: Necrogoregrinder | 02/08/2006 20:55:00

 

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Code: MCR-004

Running Time: 33:05

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6,60
I always do reviews following the same routine, as suggested by the defunct master of underground music John Peel with some personal variations: I place the Cd into the tray and let it go, dimming the lights so it is barely possible to read the lyrics in the booklet, and let the music flow into me, reading the booklet a bit, enjoying the music in turns. Once the Cd has finished, I give it a second spin while surfing the 'net for some additional infos on the band (or browsing through my old fanzines if the band is relatively old), and to see if my impressions are shared by other reviewers. Well I have to recognize one thing. Years ago I was complaining becouse there were just a few idiots making reviews on bigger mags, but I have noticed the thing has not changed much with the Internet: there are just more idiots writing blogs and webzines that have no real clue about what this music is about. For one, it seems everybody has compared this band to Dismember and even Unleashed (!!). Well I tell you now: there is not even the farthest touch of Unleashed in here (well at least the Unleashed I know, I have stopped following their albums since "Across the Open Sea"), and the Dismember resemblances basically start and end with the first song on "Death Metal" "On Fire". Apart for that song and maybe the "Misanthropic" Ep, I believe it's quite difficult to say that Dismember is a melodic Death Metal band like this one, if you think so, please check their best work the "Pieces" Ep and tell me where the fucking melody is in that cult jewel. Now all this chatter to introduce a band that surely plays a kind of Death Metal heavily influenced by the late nineties brand of melodic death metal that followed the success of At The Gates, and rapidly spread across the country. Mortifilia is from Czech republic and plays a competent form of death Metal with a solid songwriting, melodic solos and a lot of galloping thrashing riffs veined with that kind of Scandinavian melody, which however is thankfully quite far from the realm of garish shit metal of that horrible band called In Flames. Some of the riffs can be defined as a cross of very early Dark Tranquillity ("Skydancer" era, before they wimped out completely), Autumn Leaves and who knows, maybe Without Grief, I am not a very big conoisseur of this kind of Metal, it kinda slip off my brain cells. The vocals are guttural but not too much, they always remain understadable and you can follow the lines of the lyrics easily. The English might need some polishing but they're understandable, dealing with memories, fucks and death. The booklet has a very good artwork, and this style of reds and oranges is repeated all through the booklet for a consistant look. However the layout is so cheap it's in heavy contrast with the good work on the images. The fonts too big and not the best choice for a work like this, and the logo is butchered by a horrible embossing effect. Too bad becouse there were a lot of ideas tha could be exploited out of this nice artwork. So, once again I have to say this is not really a genre I understand much. I never understood why they wanted to add melodic tunes into Death Metal, it's a contraddiction in terms. It is either Death Metal or it's melodic isn't it? However strange it may sound, I admit this coupling sometimes works (see Unanimated, At the Gates, Eucharist) (well in any case it works better than the coupling of Black Metal imagery and popeye vocals... or viking lyrics and corpsepaint for that matter... ahah, how fucking stupid... I'm digressing, I know). I cannot really reccomend this album for those who like real Death Metal, but if you use to put sugar, lime and strawberry syrup into your beer, you might also like this mix of Death Metal plus melodic bridges. It's rather well done and it has no weak spots I can exploit except for a overdosage of melody towards the end, expecially in the solos. I can just hope they were earlier works.

 

Tracks (10): 1 - Just Funny Day 2 - Sacrificial Gore 3 - Romance of the Dead 4 - Transformation 5 - Redemption 6 - Christ Hunt 7 - Beauty of Blood 8 - Vitiator 9 - Great Quest 10 - Lunatics