### Morgion: The relapse collection

#### 27/07/09 || Khlysty

Underappreciation is a bitch. There’s a gazillion bands out there, some of whom are really great, but no-one cares about them. No-one talks about them in the Inter-fucking-net, no-one buys their records, no-one gives a flying fuck about them, even though their music is great, rad and generally important. And Morgion is one of those bands. See, during the early to mid-‘90s, the band offered two extremely effective slabs of death/doom, “Among Majestic Ruin” (1997, but recorded in 1994) and “Solinari” (1999). Within those two records one could see the band expanding its scope, changing, exploring new territory, while keeping everything interesting and creative.

The band had a few things going for it: they were signed to a strong indie label (Relapse), their music was approachable, even though it was extremely morose, and there was still great interest towards death metal and doom metal –which was already being reconfigured by bands like Thorr’s Hammer, Winter and Burning Witch. But Morgion failed to attract the public interest. I think that they didn’t even get “cult” status and I’m sure that they’re not one of the bands that anyone readily mentions when talking about death metal’s and doom metal’s evolution during the ‘90s. I cannot explain why this happened – I suppose that Lord K, who’s a professional musician and understands better than me the machinations of music industry, could give a viable explanation for such phenomena. (Note by The Lord: Or I couldn’t give a shit)

Anyway, recently it seems that Relapse decided to give Morgion –who’s defunct since 2004- another shot and lavishly packaged the two aforementioned records in a handy double-disk endeavor, filling to the gills with extra material and giving to the public more than 140 minutes of doomy introspection. For reasons unknown to me Relapse decided that “Solinari” would be the first and “Among Majestic Ruin” the second disk, but I would suggest to anyone interested to listen to them the way they originally appeared, so as to be able to see and hear the band evolving.

See, “Among Majestic Ruin” is the record that most of all represents the band’s death/doom tendencies, with the long compositions slithering from melancholy melodies to oppressive speedy parts with pounding drums, downtuned guitars and growled vocals. In “Solinari” Morgion abandoned their death metal roots, focusing, instead, into creating long-winded, slowly evolving pieces with emphasis on melody and textural detailing. The music is morose and depressing, but there’s a sense of melodicism that makes each song interesting and, somehow, uplifting. Even the vocals are less brutal and everything in this record whispers “funereal doom” in its most undiluted form.

The bonus material, which contains demo and alternate versions of songs plus unreleased material, is of great interest, not only because it’s professionally produced, but because it allows the listener a peek into the creative process of the band: how each song is molded and remolded and tweaked until it finds its final form. Also, it allows us to see how Morgion approached their material, what they did with it, how the band performed as a unit. The whole thing is packed lovingly, with a big booklet full of lyrics, artwork and photos, plus a well-written biography of the band.

Bottom line: if you like death/doom and/or funereal doom and you don’t own anything by Morgion, this is a good chance of redeeming that. Also, it’s a good chance of showing appreciation to a great band that never really got its due…

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Relapse
- Website: www.morgion.com
- Band
- Dwayne Boardman: guitar
- Jeremy Peto: bass, vocals
- Rhett Davis: drums
- Gary Griffith: guitars, acoustics, synths
- Brandon Livingston: synths

- Tracklist
- Disk 1 (Solinari):
- 01. The Serpentine Scrolls/Descent to Arawn
- 02. Canticle
- 03. Solinari
- 04. Nightfall Infernal
- 05. All the Glory… All the Loss
- 06. Blight
- 07. The Last Sunrise
- 08. Mundane (previously unreleased)
- 09. Symphonie der Gravens (previously unreleased)
- 10. Canticle (unreleased version)
- Disk 2 (Among Majestic Ruin):
- 01. Relic of a Darkened Past
- 02. In Ashen Tears (Thus I Cry)
- 03. Travesty
- 04. Basking Under a Blacksun Dawning
- 05. Invalid Prodigy
- 06. Mundane (1995 demo)
- 07. The Serpentine Scrolls/Descent to Arawn (1995 demo)
- 08. Phoenix Moons (1995 instrumental demo)
- 09. All the Glory… All the Loss (1998 rehearsal demo)