A Night in the Ossuary
These 23
minutes are my first meeting with Spanish Morbid Flesh. And what? This country
doesn’t stop to amaze me and still it spits many interesting and promising
bands out. And I confirm, Morbid Flesh is definitely one of them. Since a long time their music has been on my
‘must-have’ list, and I bought it couple of weeks finally. Musically the
Spaniards do not discover any new territories… and I’m going to bethink myself
how many times I wrote such words lately. Anyway, “Embedded in the Ossuary” is
nothing but a variation on the sounds recorded many years ago. Sounds that I
don’t have enough. Never. I mean, the late eighties, the first half of the
nineties and such scenes like Swedish or English, however with Javi Félez as
the producer and sound engineer, they didn’t follow the Swedish tone blindly
and gained massive, powerful wall of sounds, a bit similar to Graveyard’s “The
Sea Grave”. A coincidence?
The first
song is a kind of introduction or, better to write, an invitation to the
ossuary and if there aren’t usual Vali performance, some (sampled?) three
different vocals line can be heard, however, my rousing applause goes to both
guitarists creating absolutely splendid melodies and believe me, I am willing
to put it into “Icon” or “The Angel and the Dark River” content. There are
moments I listen to this first song many times in a row forgetting about the
rest… Well, of course I exaggerate a bit, this album hasn’t been built on it
only and with the beginning of “Charnel House”, the deathly breath of morbid
flesh is present in the room. The English sorrowful parts are gone, yet some
Icon recollections come to my mind while the longest guitar lead appears. But from
then on, the Spaniards give a sincere smile to the Scandinavian area.
The music
doesn’t shock with an uncontrollable portion of speed. Maybe “Rising of
Shadows” has it served in faster way, yet preceded by very slow beginning.
Anyway, the base here is to give different paces in the songs and it is done
really skillfully with the best example in the closing one which is just a
total crusher with paralyzing doom parts. Each track contains of catchy
rhythms, riffs and such well-known slowdowns – I really love the way they use
it and I cannot choose the leader. Mentioned “Rising of Shadows” and “Under
Ragged Hoods” have really interesting leads after those slowdowns, and I
haven’t to say how it works! And yes, there’s a need to make a mention on
Vali’s vocals – good, audible, but not so deep and guttural. So, if all of the
elements of the puzzle fit altogether, is there anything to complain about? No,
there isn’t, I confirm. Three long years have passed since publishing the title
by Unholy Prophecies, fortunately this April will be a hot month for the band,
as their second full-length has been scheduled for releasing. Personally I can’t
wait.
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in April, 2017)
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