ALBUM REVIEW: Mortiferum – Disgorged From Psychotic Depths

Following a couple of demos, MORTIFERUM are here with their first full length album of punishingly putrid old school Death Metal tinged with doomy grooves, set for release via Profound Lore Records on October 11th.

Opening with eerie bass ambience that has a thunderously crushing tone, this is going to be some disgusting music. Doomy guitars and gutturally spewed vocals join soon enough for the sparsely foreboding death-march to stomp over the chiming cymbal. There is no mistaking how decadently vile this material is with its haunting slow riffs and tense atmosphere. Kicking some mid tempo crawling riffs in, the grinding assault has odious layers that drudge through dismally heavy grooves with efficiently tight musicianship smoothly. The snapping drum fills throughout give a gargantuan pacing to the monolith of slimy guitar riffs and vomited vocals that really adds to the slow paced devastation of the music. The eldritch barrage of ghastly morbidity on this record is flawless and keeps a grimy feeling to the soundscapes of despair with murky production. While overall a more slow and brooding release we do see some blastbeats that hammer out deathly speeds and tremolo picked riffs much more akin to the classic Death Metal style we all know and love but when those ichorous doomy parts come back they hit hard. There is also some superb guitar work on the solos that add a frenzied and blissful melody over the darkened rhythmic swelling that convulses out pure Death-Doom ecstasy. The drum work on this album is phenomenal with a concise onslaught of killer fills and meaty pounds that back up the savage riffing gorgeously. The use of a short but pristine and tranquil interlude was incredibly effective after a barrage of such heaviness, it gave the record a breather before diving into one last pool of fetid musical extremity, sounding all the more barbaric after the peaceful interlude. With a stunning combination of mesmerising ambience and decimating brutality, stay on your toes but do not be afraid to sink into the prowess Mortiferum have to offer. This is some excellent material and an astoundingly brilliant first full length that lives up to the likes of Spectral Voice, Cerebral Rot and Ritual Necromancy with an array of catatonic and cavernous Death Metal soundscapes yet with the more pulsating grooves bands like Cruciamentum and Fetid offer. If you enjoy the likes of Hooded Menace but wish for a more guttural and sewer-drenched Death Metal assault, then this is where balance can be found. A twisted and obliterating slab of doomy Death Metal that is gloriously heavy with atmospherics to spare throughout this belching cacophony of blundering grooves, fantastic. -8.5/10