Morbus Chron - A Saunter Through The Shroud

With last year’s ‘’Sleeper In The Rift’’ Morbus Chron firmly established themselves as one of the effective and cunning death metal bands of the last five years. It was their sheer eloquence, their fleshy brand of Swedish death metal that set them apart from the hordes that engulfed the death metal scene, and with their impressive manoeuvres, the found the spotlight and won numerous accolades for their lasting, fluent effort. Now, it seems the band has got a tighter grip on large audiences, signing with Century Media Records, an undoubtedly advantageous move for both. Century Media has long been signing crappy modern metal acts, therefore this release may put off some strict underground fans, but of late, the label has been picking up some of brighter bulbs in the batch, and these fellow Swedes are one of the label’s front runners without a doubt.

Their debut showed substantial promise for the young act, and their Ep ‘’A Saunter Through The Shroud’’ continues to pursue that goal, but rather than having a huge impact on the scene, it forms the basis for an upcoming sophomore, and it serves as a joint that binds itself to the upcoming record. Morbus Chron has already escaped from the clutches of the generic Swedish death metal cliché with the debut album, but this Ep enlarges their innovative sight a deal further, and with a little more technique and experience, the band has now simply surpassed all the obstinate hindrances of the genre, and is vigorously charging towards an even more intriguing future. The main two influences I can put together are ‘’Human’’ era Death and ‘’Deception Ignored’’ era Deathrow, hints of carnage-riddled Voivod, even nuances in between arduous passages that resemble certain Finnish death metal acts, particularly Demilich and Convulse, and there’s tidbits of Autopsy as well, hidden in certain bowel-disintegrating lurches. All of these influences congeal into a brazen fusion, and once you insert a hostile, ferocious cross of Chuck Shuldiner and John Tardy, an organic and somewhat unpredictable array of drum beats, you have a gulping, menacing combination that reeks of originality even though all of its pieces are snatched from other sources, and it sounds as if Morbus Chron is inaugurating the flowering of something new.

The coming of a completely new advent does seem like delusional idea from a distance, but the band has just started to churn its fruitful compositions, and I can only hope there still much to hear from them. That said, Morbus Chron’s excursions are very alien too. On the Ep, the band almost never dementedly charge of pummelling, crushing bombardments of heavily-bestirred Swedish grinding, but instead keeps tangling the listener with fluctuating chains of gore-riddled technicality, and such incursions are nearly unpredictable and seem alien even after numerous spins. The vocals are the main powerhouse of the band here; the growl out ferociously and their serving is far more primal, however well used. I can’t help but listen vigorously with diligence to the band’s hostile work, their astute approach to classic death metal, and albeit this Ep will not appease the most voracious of listeners, it will most certainly keep the drooling constant. 

Highlights:

Channeling The Numinous

The Place Of The Four Hundred Volcanoes 

Rating: 84%