Mortiferum

Disgorged From Psychotic Depths

BY Jack KelleherPublished Oct 10, 2019

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Mortiferum crept onto the scene in 2017 with their acclaimed demo Altar of Decay, a malodorous broth of death/doom viscera that befouled the air like a disinterred body. Fans and critics took notice of the Olympia, WA outfit's remorseless heaviness and aptitude for spooky riffs, thirsting for a full-length offering from the band. To satisfy the sick lust of the masses, Mortiferum give us Disgorged From Psychotic Depths, a debut rife with oppressively heavy death.
 
Fans of Mortiferum's demo will find more to love on Disgorged. The band continue to channel pummelling Finnish death metal, like Convulse and Rippikoulu, while adding some death/doom and Incantation for an album that sounds like a black mass for cavemen. Their sound is best exemplified by the preeminent banger on this album, "Putrid Ascension," which features their most foul riffs and savage blast beats.
 
The band lean harder into their death/doom sensibilities as the album nears its end, with songs "Funereal Hallucinations" and "Faceless Apparition" haunting the listener with lingering guitars in the manner of Spectral Voice. The increasing gloom could have given the album a sense of descent, but it's interrupted by "Interlude (Anamnesis)," a generic acoustic instrumental that sounds too nice to be on this album.
 
Instead, this would have been better served by another song like "Inhuman Effigy," a Bolt Thrower-esque headbanger, and the only song (aside from the instrumental) to rein it in under five minutes. With a lonely song like that, the album isn't exactly well-rounded, but what really holds Disgorged back is a lack of innovation. While the songs on this album are for the most part good, they're orthodox. That's fine if that was the vision for this album, but it makes it hard for Disgorged to stand out amongst the abundance of bands doing the Finish thing recently.
 
Having said that, Disgorged is solid, even if it doesn't break the mould. Mortiferum display a deft hand for this style of metal, and anyone looking to bang their head to something low and slow will get what they need.
(Profound Lore)

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