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Morgoth: Cursed
13/01/11 || Habakuk
Germany was never really known for being a death metal paradise, especially compared to Florida, New York, Sweden and the likes on their heyday. With a metal community as big as theirs though, it would have been strange if not at least some death metal had been produced. Morgoth is the most “prominent” band that fills this void. Clearly, death metal hadn’t quite shaped its profile in their surroundings at the time, otherwise these idiots wouldn’t have gone for a name derived from Tolkien. That’s their loss, really, as it probably keeps people from checking them out until today – Congratulations on sharing a mental scheme with bands like Battlelore, Ensiferum and Legolas & the Mongo Orcs. The truth lies a far cry from that.
On “Cursed” (and some say only there), Morgoth play high quality, at times doom-tinged old school death metal à la Asphyx, especially similar due to Marc Grewe’s intelligible but “dirty” growl delivery, which might be a bit of an acquired taste – but actually rules. You’ll see Grewe’s name still pop up from time to time, by the way, for example on Insidious Disease’s debut from 2010. Anyway, his former main band Morgoth shared with their Dutch neighbors the tendency to get slow and heavy and embrace the groove, while speed for both bands translated mostly to thrashy bits and pieces. The overall feel is a bit cleaner and tidier with Morgoth, though, which is mostly owed to the relatively tight (for ’91) production and less frantic, but comparatively precise instrumental performance.
The awesomely simple riffs really form the backbone of this album, creating a menacing dark atmosphere that’s however structured in nature and shifts tempos quite naturally, breaking its chugging mid-tempo beauty by occasional speedier sections, and of course the prominent, verminous barking of Marc Grewe – “Sufferrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Liiifee!!”. Awesomeness deluxe. Some of the skullbashing, drums-centered rhythms on here (“Body count”, “Exit to temptation”) are absolutely boss as well and keep things interesting even though the basic formula stays consistent throughout the album.
So, long story short, to everyone who can’t stand vocals in the vein of Martin van Drunen – stay away. Every other old school death lover should give this a spin and put this German oddity into his or (gasp!) her collection. For it ruleth.
- Information
- Released: 1991
- Label: Century Media
- Website: Morgoth MySpace
- Band
- Marc Grewe: vocals
- Harald Busse: guitars
- Carsten Offerbach: guitars
- Sebastian Swart: bass
- Rüdiger Hennecke: drums, keyboards
- Tracklist
- 01. Cursed
- 02. Body count
- 03. Exit to temptation
- 04. Unreal imagination
- 05. Isolated
- 06. Sold baptism
- 07. Suffer life
- 08. Opportunity is gone
- 09. Darkness
