Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Morgue Supplier - A Life Extinguished (2023)

A Life Extinguished is the second in a series of singles planned for 2023 by Chicago sickos Morgue Supplier, and like its predecessor, its focus is on further fleshing out and exploring the band's influences from death and grind, with a fraction more atmosphere and progression than you'd have expected from their earlier full-lengths. There's a clear line here from Inevitability, but I found this particular track to be one of the most interesting they've produced yet, and although it's just as demented and extreme as you'd believe, there are points where it was almost weirdly accessible, with these bouncing grooves and catchier guitars taking over from the blasted, more intense exhibitions of force. It also goes hyper weird at points, shifting numerous times between tempos where the dissonant guitar lines ring out and they almost sound mischievous or playful...

It's probably an insane comparison, but what if there were a band which adopted the grindier aspects of bands like Exit 13 or Cephalic Carnage and then twisted them with a bit of Primus and an organically rendered dissonant brand of industrial metal circa Godflesh? That's what I took away from this tune, and it's highly entertaining, and a little different, without betraying the expectations of Morgue Supplier fans over the past few albums. As usual, Paul Gillis doesn't just deliver his vocals with monotonous grunts or snarls, the guy's got all that going on, but he just slathers his lines over the riffing, as if someone had spit them out in gobs and then they were running down the walls of the song's framework like blood or puke. Add to that an awesome bass tone from Stephen Reichelt, which excels whether it's plunking out fat notes that pop from the incendiary guitars, or with its rawer, blustering tone, and a frenzied, formidable drum spot from Danny Walker (Intronaut, Exhumed, Phobia, and many others). "A Life Extinguished" is every bit as heavy and frightening as its title implies, and lyrically evocative and grotesque, but it's also a hell of a lot of fun.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075977500489

No comments: