ninehertz

For a sound that is clearly wallowing in the most piteous, depraved corners of war metal, Chile’s Mors.Void.Discipline somehow display a progressiveness, variance and – as inappropriate a word as this may be – a nuance that marks Txketh)ëké as more than simply metal pushed to its ultimate extremities.

Out on Sentient Ruin, this is an album that barrages its way into your brain but then holds you for its length with more quality and depth than expected. The opening brings Portal-like pulsations although from even further into the morbid pits, with sub-guttural vocals and war metal levels of drum-led invasive force, cumulating in a disgusting, belching swamp of horrific noise.

Across the following tracks there are shifts in pace, genre, approach – Impurae Cantus Cruentarum Portalis for example brings in gurgling goregrind vocals above clattering death metal, before slowing into terrifying doom worlds by its laborious ending. Calix Bilis Benedictae’s fast pace is almost grindcore with the war/gore vocal style, but underneath, once you’ve had time to sit and settle with this and get used to its flow, you notice there’s stellar death metal lying below the putrid mass of noise.

Its second half brings superb death-doom maelstrom on a couple of tracks as a chugging, sludgey form chokes the pace, and there’s even an almost wistful tone and what may be a saxophone on the album’s closer. This is the thrill of the album – not content to simply churn the handles of war metal for the album's length, as most others do and would have been perfectly reasonable, they have so much more going on. It enlivens the album, maintaining interest and excitement throughout.