Morbus Chron - Sweven (2014)

Morbus Chron had already proven it was anything but the cliched Swedish death metal experience on its debut Sleepers in the Rift and the ensuing EP A Saunter in the Shroud, so color me unsurprised that their full-length sophomore proves an even greater departure from the base, traveling about the same distance from the norm that Tribulation did with last year's The Formulas of Death, or the latest record from Norway's Obliteration. This is a good thing, people, because of late I've found the typical regional tone and d-beat aesthetic exceptionally redundant and stagnant like a half-open pickle jar that's been let out into the sun for too long...not that I enjoy pickles to begin with, but Sweven is just as tart, crunchy and acidic as any you've had in recent times.

The title is, I believe, an old term for 'slumber' or 'dreaming', and it's remarkable how the musical decisions (and obviously the cover art) capture this state of unconsciousness with a wonderful contrast of tension and trepidation. Acoustic guitars are used throughout the record as if a backdrop to some slowly building horror, as catchy as involved as any of the electrical-charged emissions they run us through once reverting back towards that sort of curious antique-Morbid Angel-meets-Autopsy aesthetic they cultivate through the gruesome, unhinged vocal growls and the hectic nature of the guitars. Though aggressive, Sweven is laced with note selections of an even more melodic texture than the debut, shifting between brazen, bristling death metal progressions and a sheen of bright blackness in some of the tremolo picked passages, with a clean and harmonized tone that continues the band's juxtaposition of the otherworldly and organic. Tasty licks like the spooky thrash harmony in "Aurora in the Offing" or the atonal, almost bluesy open picking in "Ripening" are constant, and I never felt like anything was repeated over the substantial 53 minute experience.

The drums sound fantastic, from the restrained but effective blasting to the excellent balance of cymbal crashes that emphasize the atmosphere; crucial since Morbus Chron doesn't exactly saturate the sounds with psychedelic keyboards or effects beyond those that the core band might tear out on stage. The bass is somewhat relegated to a muddy, supportive flow, which is partially the point, but due to the heavily melodic focus of the riffing it definitely stands out enough, and considering the sheer variety of riffing techniques over Sweven it's thankfully consistent. But perhaps the greatest sounds on the album hail from the aforementioned acoustic tones, beautiful in a cut like "Solace" which is pregnant with the ringing of what sounds like deep piano tones that lend it some gravitas. This is such a perfectly implemented component of the album, not only on the shorter instrumental pieces but also when used to set up some morbid, harrowing metal track that it makes a lot of other metal bands who eschew the use of cleaner guitars seem like they're really messing out. It's not 'cheap and folksy', and it's not just something they use for an intro and then abandon.

I can't emphasize enough just how important this small group of Scandinavian pioneers has become amidst the insipid ambitions of so many of their peers...sacrificing the security of numbers for an adventure into the possibilities found only on the borders of classification. Morbus Chron, Obliteration, Tribulation and Necrovation are to me the bands that will be remembered long after the Entombed-a-thon, which has widened its gyre now to swallow a lot of American grind/hardcore bands in addition to its local practitioners, at last subsided. While it might not be incredibly memorable during individual moments, Sweven creates a constant swath of mood and subtle malevolence which I can't imagine would fade if I listened through it in 10 years. A truly timeless production which does not neglect a sense of dread and the unexpected once the listener closes his/her eyes to consume it. I liked the first album a little bit better, but at the same time I think this one will cast a much wider net. Was very near my album of the month, will certainly have a presence on many year's end lists, and cements the Swedes as one of the most legitimate and talented acts on a Century Media roster which seems to be half-intent on returning to substance and quality (or piggybacking on the retro death metal bandwagon, but if that results in this, so fucking be it).

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/morbuschron

Morbus Chron - A Saunter Through the Shroud EP (2012)

Say what you will about Century Media's questionable, lame metalcore signings (Destiny Potato? Really?) and trendy preferences throughout the past decade or so. Now that they've decided to pick up some of the emergent wave of retro and atmospherically inspired death metal acts, they've shown remarkably good taste. First it was Israel's excellent Sonne Adam and a reissue of the unsung champion Gorement's discography; now they've swooped in and snapped up one of Sweden's best bands in this field, Morbus Chron, whose excellent debut Sleepers in the Rift was a personal highlight of 2011. A Saunter Through the Shroud serves as a ligament between that album, and hopefully what is to come when they settle in to write and record their sophomore opus.

This is short, with just over 13 minutes and three tracks, but it continues to expand and define the band's alien approach to traditional death metal from both sides of the pond. Elements of the Swedish and Finnish cult classics are unified with Autopsy-like convulsions, especially through Robba's vocals which seem like a fusion of John Tardy, Chuck Schuldiner and Chris Reifert hanging out in front of a Chulthu-worship convocation. One of the band's sheer strengths is in how far they take their riffs. Unlike about 90% of the bands retrofitting death metal as a natural reaction to the technical/brutal titans that had dominated the field increasingly through the 90s and turn of the century, Morbus Chron actually seem creative, and relatively unpredictable. I feel that when I listen through one of their tracks, I have very little idea what is happening next. Sure, it's going to remain within a mildly progressive, otherworldly death metal primacy, but the precise notes being meted out do not mold themselves to my precognitive disinterest in Left Hand Path worship.

You'll hear anything in here from the more modern, 90s Death to a spooky, almost sporadic smattering of dissonant death and doom which can seem like a gorier mutation on Voivod. The guitars are suffused with a fuzzy clarity, the bass is oozy and individualistic enough to add an inventive subtext, and the way they all come together with the drums gives the EP a surprisingly earthen and natural feel which is at odds with the extraterrestrial, extraplanar horror of the band's lyrical inspirations. I wouldn't say that these three tracks took me quite as far as the prior full-length, or hit me as aggressively, but they share that same level of thought and plot that allows the Swedes to stand out in such an overcrowded field. This is the sort of act that might one day be spoken of in the same reverence as its forefathers. A Saunter Through the Shroud pays close attention to the tropes and lessons of its influences, but implements them far afield of reality. Cannot wait to hear what they'll conjure up next.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (an absence of presence)

http://www.facebook.com/morbuschron

Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift (2011)

From the spiraling chaos of its beautiful cover art, to the bare bones and carnal quality of its production, Sleepers in the Rift is one ace goddamn death metal album. The Swedes are admittedly quite retro in their take on the genre, and so one immediately would draw the conclusion that they're yet another in the tireless charade of bands emulating Entombed, Dismember, Carnage, Grotesque, Grave, and their ilk, but they're also one of the few projects I've heard lately that truly overcome the tired stereotypes to produce something effectively grimy and entertaining. Think of them more along the lines of Bastard Priest, Tribulation or Repugnant in their attempt to strip the sound down and slather it in raw, nearly crust-worthy admonition that the niche is dead in its tracks.

For one thing, Sleepers in the Rift is brilliantly paced. There's enough core variation in the riff writing that you never feel inundated with the same thing twice, and the band is not afraid to expand upon the envelope of early 90s Euro death by means of some clinical thrashing or face rocking, morbid doom rhythms. Each of the songs here actually SOUNDS like its title, a fact I find fascinating. "Hymns to a Stiff" is a swaying, swerving tribute to a corpse, forged in loose architecture and appreciable dissonance. One can just feel the mortician's excitement as he or she probes and prods the recently deceased. The doomed, funereal pageantry inherent in a tune called "Lidless Coffin". The spacious, volatile contrivance of of a "Deformation of the Dark Matter", twisted guitar sequences crashing into a spectral void like streams of incoherent and congealed nightmare-stuff, the sustenance of Elder Gods. Or the sheer face rocking of "Ways of Torture", the most old school d-beat inflected trip on the entire album.

All components fuse together in an unholy merger of peak Autopsy (first two albums) and the Swedish pioneers of the late 80s through about 1992. The vocals are abrasive and agonizing, with a good deal of resonant character, almost a midway point between Chuck Schuldiner and L-G Petrov. The drums are organic, constantly crashing and driving the meaty but deliberately under polished guitar tone. The bass is not exactly a high point, granted, but when tracks like the raging "Dead Body Pile Necrophile" or grooving "Red Hook Horror" begin their passage to your cortex, you will quickly lose concern as the album's maw of terror sends you stomach-ward into its abyssal, digestive juices.

What's more, the rather lowborn, silly yet honest lyrical style serves as a strangely functional contrast to the cosmic, extradimensional eye candy and brow raising band name. And both tracks from last year's Creepy Creeping Creeps EP are included, so there's no longer a necessity for tracking that down. Sleepers in the Rift is simply marvelous, retro without ripping from its influences too directly; fresh and ferocious in its pursuit of strong riffing and gelid, mind warping atmospheres. It's 1990 all over again, and one of the more compelling takes on the popular Swedish death niche since Repugnant's Epitome of Darkness, or The Horror by Tribulation a few years ago.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (crepuscular charm)

http://www.myspace.com/morbuschronband