Whenever I get handed an album from Godz ov War Productions I know I’m in for one hell of a listen. And that’s what I got with the mighty Morgue from France!
If you’ve read a few of my reviews you’ll know that I love death metal & the dirtier the better!
Now when it comes to Morgue they take the icing on the cake, hell they take the whole cake! Morgue has to be one of the dirtiest, most raw & aggressive death metal bands I’ve heard in 2022.
“Lowest Depths of Misery” is the band’s newest album. A follow up from 2021’s “Artgore”. In preparation for this review, I gave it a few listens. It’s a solid album which leans more into the grindcore side of death metal.
“Transcend the Acheron” opens up the album like a shotgun blast to the chest. An orchestral passage rings before boom you are hit with a bombarding wall of guitars & blast beats. Even though it is very raw & visceral, Morgue is able to bring in lead riffs & melody into the tracks which turns it from just solid blasting & noisey to a catchy but relentless track.
There is no stopping to breathe before the next track “Polar Aftermath” begins. Max Lobier is the mastermind behind the band. Vocalist, guitarist & now drummer on this album his vision is exact. One of the most piercing vocals delivered on a recent album I’ve heard.
The agony & torture in his voice hits through the wall of sound to invoke dredd & panic.
Just before the track closes there’s a quick switch up in riffing & adding a panic chord passage much like the panic in Max’s voice this last part of the track breaks it up nicely!
At the midpoint “Roads To Gehenna” shows the direction the band have moved slightly away from the more grind side that was on the last album & have added more blackend even some more bestial war metal vibes to the album that make it even more chaotic & barbaric.
Closer “Safe in Gods Care” has a huge beginning. Building up the intensity before the tempo changes & all is unleashed. As a whole the album is inhuman & disgusting in all the best ways.
What it has at its core is the raw aggression but it’s full of melody, catchy tempo changes & it never out stays its welcome!
It’s a great thirty minutes chocked full of great moments & some of the most primitive death metal of 2022.
Joseph Mitchell
Lowest Depths of Misery is out via Godz ov War Productions on 14th Oct 2022
Tracklist:
01. Transcend the Acheron
02. Polar Aftermath
03. That Which Does Not Live
04. House of the Departed
05. Down Syndrome
06. Roads To Gehenna
07. Walls of Dis
08. Hug and a Stab in the Back
09. Safe in Gods Care