The first album I write about for 2014 (I know, it has been many months) is already looking close to being my album of the year. After being surprised and blown away by Tribulation last year with their 'The Formulas Of Death' album, their fellow countrymen, Morbus Chron have gone and done the same thing this year with their new album, 'Sweven'. More Swedish death metal bands pushing the boundaries...
After a more straight forward death metal album in 2011 ('Sleepers In The Rift'), this time around, Morbus Chron throws in a heap of cleaner dark melodies, drenched in a gloomy effect and merge with it an array of speedy riffs that are filled with a raw and grazing haze. Vocals that are menacingly harsh and drum patterns that spit out like puffs of the bleakest mist.
As the gloomy melodies invite you to cautiously wander through the blinding mist, the sudden hit of upbeat speedy riffs unveils that this mist is filled with poison and you are forced to scatter around trying to escape the clutches of it but then you are mesmerized by the moments where the riffs slow down and pierce the sky with its eerie lead work and you slowly fall into an eternal sleep. Only then will the return of more gloomy melodies lift your soul from your now lifeless body, and help you enter the kingdoms in the dark skies.
When comparing to Tribulation, where 'The Formulas Of Death' went wrong was it was a little too long and a little too clean in sound. Morbus Chron gets it pretty much perfect here. But this is just to emphasize further how 'perfect' this album is.
With a fair amount of Swedish death metal bands sticking to the old formula, Morbus Chron has now joined the likes of Necrovation, Tribulation and Irkallian Oracle and taken Swedish death metal to new heights. This keeps the genre interesting and for that, I am more interested in what these bands are doing given how different they have become. By years end, 'Sweven' will be my album of the year or very close to it. Regardless.. a modern day classic in the genre.
Ikil
