Blood Mortized - Blood Mortized (2009)

The haunted castle. The morbid fortress. The palace of exquisite tortures. So often do their images grace the albums of metal records which...fail to sound anything like they even belong in a courtyard or gatehouse of such a place. And yet, whenever I see an image like the fantastic cover of Blood Mortized's eponymous 2009 debut, I cross my fingers behind my back and hope I'm about to get that majestic, monolithic, vampiric evil sound I so project onto them through sheer imagination alone. These Swedes do not really sound native to such a vision, but to their credit, they could at least squat in the boneyard out front, or maybe around to the side. No more or no less worthy than any other Swedish death metal band adopting that aural blueprint of forebears Dismember and Entombed, they choose a fairly safe sound and just roll with it...to middling if not entirely ineffective results.

Yes, you've already guessed what the guitar tone on this disc sounds like, so I can only add that it's a little more dense and roiling than several of their other peers that have popped up in the last half of a decade. Blood Mortized exist on a precarious balance between the more melancholic, driving melodic brand of Swedeath pioneered by groups like Desultory ("Devil's Vengeance") and a more churning spin on the Entombed death & roll style adopted during the transitions to Clandestine and Wolverine Blues. They possess an almost suffocating level of atmosphere once those fat, meaty rhythms are blistering along on some painfully simple rhythm pattern and all manner of leads, bluesy and/or evil leads ring out and provide most of my favorite moments on the entire record, like during the bridge of "Wishing Hell". Vocals come in two flavors, one being a slightly higher pitched snarl, and the other being the L-G Petrov guttural grunts with a Klas Morberg's bark, and they're fairly well done if merely redundant to so many we've already heard to death. There's also a very big, bossy, bassy feel to the record that helps compensate slightly for the fact that half the riff progressions are completely uninspired and boring...

So this is yet another of those many cases where the production serves to give a heavier sound to a slew of banal material that nobody would pay attention to otherwise. Yet ultimately, there's enough packed in there, enough distractions that this is far from one of the worse of the retro Swedeath records I've heard, and at its best I'd even claim it was spot on. Individual songs aren't memorable to the extent that I'd seek them out individually, but if I was down for an endless loop of bands in this style and had just finished Mr. Death, Revel in Flesh, Entrails and others, this would fit the bill. Indiscriminate fanatics for the sound could do a lot worse, and when the band hits a lumbering level of groove as in "Funeral Ride" where the harmonies and melodies are ringing out over some of the nastier chord choices, it becomes sweltering, satisfying stuff. At over an hour, there is also quite a lot of it, and half the dozen cuts are worthwhile or very near that. Just wish it sounded as evil and inviting as it looked.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/BloodMortized

Blood Mortized - Bestial EP (2011)

Blood Mortized is another Swedish band pursuing the dream of its forebears from the 90s, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the Bestial EP feels like being dropped off in a time machine somewhere betwixt Clandestine and Wolverine Path. However, the skill of the band's roster, several of whom have served time in acts like Amon Amarth and Crypt of Kerberos, certainly shines forth, and the material is well-produced and mildly entertaining, even if it fails to stick to the memory like others in this peer group (for example, the full-length debuts by Miasmal, Feral and Morbus Chron).

Of course, you can largely gather what this sounds like from the first sentence of the review. But to give them some credit, there are mild deviations into other old school terrains, so whilst "Bestial" itself opens the album at a rocking canter with vocals eerily reminiscent of L-G Petrov, the second track "Of Dust & Doom" is a slog of doom which reminds me of Bolt Thrower's airy, windswept guitar tone from Realm of Chaos, set to a march and a mix of narrative vocals and grunts. "Shadows of the Quarter Sun" also gives this impression at first, but then picks back up into the Swedish turf. The closer, "Rekviem" is a slower, grooving piece, but cast in much the same riffing mold with some nice glazes of lead deep into the 6+ minute structure.

From the perspective of pure production, Bestial sounds great, and should absolutely thrill fans of that old Sunlight sound on tone alone. Unfortunately, the band's riffs just never seemed to scream at me. Albums like Clandestine or Indecent & Obscene weren't just getting by on the bludgeoning volume of their guitars, but the actual songwriting, and I just don't feel as if Blood Mortized have the capability or presence to amount to anything more than the next guys on the same block. At least not with this material. Bestial is fine for listening through once or twice, and some headbanging might even ensue, yet there's nothing surprising or unique about it, and it's been done so, so many times before, and better. Even in recent memory I can count off a dozen albums that destroy this at it's own game, too many other places to turn for this fix.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/bloodmortized