Classic Midwestern death metal band Morgue sees release on Dark Descent and The Crypt in the coming months. This band hovered at the periphery of death metal in the early 1990s, essentially filling in stylistic gaps and creating a unique testament to the power of death metal that inspired more musicians than fans owing to low visibility in the market.
Now the band gets a second chance with this release of their only full-length Eroded Thoughts with the “Random Decay” and “Severe Psychopathology” demos as bonus tracks. A 16-page booklet includes classic photos and a lengthy introduction explaining the band and its place in history.
Tags: death metal, morgue, re-issue
I always written this band off as being some mediocre “me too” band like Viogression or Morta Skuld. Listening to this now… I’d rather listen to Atrocity or Obituary.
Why do all these demo compilations and random album reissues always need a physical release, like that Wombbath album and the God Macabre one? Collectors should do something more productive with their disposable income than purchase these old curiosities that would be better off staying on youtube or bandcamp than using up more resources to make future dumpster fodder.
Ppl need dat bread cuzz…
In other words, people need to make money. Let sheeple have stuff like this, shove mediocre Metal down their throats and then maybe they will leave…
Think about a pyramid, the more lame and mediocre Metal gets, the better it *can* get…There’s nothing really wrong with what’s going on..That’s true metaphysics…
People like to buy stuff, because it obligates them to pay attention to it. They are more likely to praise something they’ve bought than something they got for free, which is why at some point all blogs turn into books, movies or podcasts.
Nice cover art!
What’s wrong with this record? Structurally? Compositionally? Dont tell me its a bunch of rehashed death metal riffs thar are randomly thrown together either. For once I would love to hear one of you critics provide actually criticism, or meaningful descriptive feedback. Better check the DLA…. hahahha
This is just going by the “ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz….” nature of the first track Coroners Report:
Heard it all before, other bands played these kinds of riffs before (I hear Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Autopsy and Sepultura). Song structure seems slightly disjointed with awkward tempo changes (see mosh part going into Autopsy riff). Compositionally: despite knowledge of early 90s style death metal, the music is just a bouncy, jaunty affair like the early 90s pseudo-underground headbangers ball metal (kind of like how Domination had Morbid Angel riffs in it, but it’s just a groove album). Sounds generic like the Disincarnate album released during the same year.
The second song has Autopsy riffs going into stop-start mosh riffs that sound lifted from Pantera/Sepultura’s Chaos AD. A later riff is a bluesy and rock oriented one which seems unnecessary and contributes to the disjointed structure and nature of this song. Reminds me of the second track from the Disincarnate album as well.
The third track sounds like Pantera fooling around with Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation riffs. I’ll stop now.
I think this will go down poorly with the people that complained about God Macabre in a previous article for the same reasons: there’s flashes of inspiration, then there’s riffs that sound like afterthoughts to fill the gaps. I don’t necessarily hate it, but it’s not worth writing home about either and that’s the problem.
I’m surprised this album is in the review archive considering the style and quality (then again Baphomet is here). Should be excised since at least mediocrity like God Macabre has “cultural value” as being representative of the Swedish scene at the time and where it was going, which includes death n’ roll (bouncy hc and bluesy rocking riffs). This is just another example of creative decline in death metal from the United States at the time and could be swapped for any number of other sub-par releases. I don’t mean to offend anyone or the writer here, but I just don’t see what the point is in even bringing this up. At least that new Mayhem is worth hating.
Yo. Yo. YO. Are you fucking with Baphomet?! Just because it sounds a little chugga chugga doesnt mean its weak. The Dead Shall Inherit is a great album. I mean fucking great, its compositionally excellent (no Burzum sure), its brutal as fuck and most of all nearly all of it solidly slots together.
If you are getting fooled by the dumb sounding aesthetic of Baphomet then give Morgue a million more chances before you say the above. I dont really, really love Morgue but it sort of sounds like you missed out.
Do NOT diss Baphomet. Boiled in Blood!
This record was a favorite from the past, but I haven’t listened for some time. Much of that is unrelated to the record.
Eroded Thoughts is challenging first of all because it has a high density of riffs and lead guitar. Further, its major disadvantage becomes clear: it is divided between its influences. What are those influences?
In addition to the general formula of 2nd album Morbid Angel plus Autopsy, there are other influences; I pick out a lot of Num Skull and Terrorizer. But the hidden influence on this is Voivod. A huge number of these riffs, including more than half of the speed metally/hard rock riffs (including the Panterrik), derive from Voivod’s first four albums.
What makes this band interesting is that, like the Midwest, it tries to mix all of its influences serially. Thus you get a Morbid Angel-Autopsy riff, and an Autopsy-Num Skull riff, then a few Terrorizer riffs with Voivody stuff sprinkled in between. Then it ties together with the lead guitarist who sounds like he got good too fast and then had to step back and re-analyze his influences.
Ultimately, I like this record, but it’s going to stay at the B+ level for old school death metal, where the first Morbid Angel or Sepultura is an A+ (in this old school scale, none of the newer genres rank higher than a D). The album tapers off in intensity of organization, seemingly time/energy based, and by being jack of all trades became master of none as far as style is concerned. However, there’s a lot of good stuff in here.
Even more importantly, this band write songs at least for the first five tracks. These songs have clear emotional rise and fall and it relates to a change in their starting condition. That and the noodly, sometimes bluesy lead guitar remind me of Entombed on its second album.
I am sorry man if you keep looking for some kind of objective analysis of music you will always come up short. The DLA reviews are filled with analogy, stuff is described by comparing it to other sensory experiences (random caverns etc.). It is all subjective, because we dont have words for this stuff (okay we have a few). A part of our brain is dedicated to music, separate from language. Its just not a thing you can verbalize, but its a thing you can understand, especially if a group of people uses a particular lingo (otherwise eveything devolved into meaningless adjectives like metal-archives shit).
I mean I cant really, really when we come down to it, tell you why a riff is good but I can tell a good riff. So dont be so hard on these criticisms. Take them for what they are, expressions of people`s opinion about the record. If you respect that opinion then take their advice maybe, if you dont then avoid it or listen anyway w/e. What I hope doesnt happen is constant argument about how someone`s explanation for not liking/liking shit isnt objective enough.
*Quality of music is objective.
*Perception of music is subjective.
*Neither objective/subjective matters, results matter, but of course you know this.
And about Morgue, I thought the lead guitar sort of ruined it actually. It could have been a lot tighter (shorter, faster songs with slightly more abrupt, though not nonsensical, transitions). Its a good record and I am going to listen to it now.
Everything is objective. “Subjective” is a human way of asserting their preference what “should” be over what is, and nothing more.
That is what I mean, music listening is fundamentally about expectation and what is that if not an assertion of preference? The expectation moves you, fulfilled or unfulfilled. It remains subjective for the reason you said, it is human. It is objective in a sense, but it doesnt really help to describe it as such. Just indicate a standard exists, dont care if you dont care about it but its good try it out, that is about it. No need for long philosophical arguments about it, it is quite a fundamental question to human nature and psychology. Sure it can be explored, but best leave it for some other topic.
P.S: Not saying this conversation ever took such a turn.
Even choice is objective. It reveals who we are.
Test for subjectivity:
Question: Would X still be there, if humans did not exist?
If yes, then X is objective. If no, then X is subjective.
Would Beethoven’s 9th still be ‘good music’, if there were no humans around? Of course not, in a strict sense. It is conceivable that an alien species coming to earth, after humans are extinct, would find some other, shit type of music, ‘better’, due to the structure of their nervous systems and the way in which they perceive reality. They would create long blogs about why the latter music is more majestic, etc.
But there is a sense in which Beethoven is probably better, inter-subjectively. That is, taking human beings as a given, generalize over them. The difference between objective and inter-subjective is important here.
Its a semantic thing bro honestly. I think this whole topic has run its course and needs to quietly die. Also while I rant, this whole speed metal/thrash thing needs to go to. I mean language changes, it doesnt matter what is correct. Coke is a brand, so is Xerox, and I hoover my room not vacuum clean it. Its not the brands I want to emphasize but the drift in meaning.
If marketing started out calling speed metal thrash and it stuck, let it stick, go along. This is the basis of language, it isnt in anyone`s hands. There is another common term for thrash. I used to be a stickler for correctness in this aspect but only for people to realize the actual history/avoid confusion. Total 180 now, it even goes against the intended nature of this site (a DLA that reaches out to the metal community instead of sinks into itself) so maybe it should be dropped.
Sorry to dig up an old corpse in such an off-topic way, but ranting is ranting. Also, make more songs.
I don’t think so. There is a structure common to the way human beings perceive and think which might possibly make some art better than other art. If this is what one means by ‘objective’, then one might be off to a good start.
But if one means something completely mind independent, that good art is some kind of ‘cosmic reflection of the One’, which in-itself corresponds to reality, like a map corresponds to a city, isomorphically, then you have a problem. This is what Brett seems to think.
I don’t know why it’s not sufficient just to stick with the following manifesto: This site holds that the following art [insert bands] is good, and thus it seeks to promote it – by showing similarities with romanticism, classicism, nihilism, narrative art, etc and by talking about the syntax of good music construction (i.e. don’t write a fucking riff that sounds like a new song every 2 minutes).
After all, this kind of good work is going to win converts over, not the notion that the art in question is ‘True’.
Oh, and current writing/recording ;)
Just realized this may be misconstrued as an attack on the heavy articles on this site, totally not my intention. Those are gold, invaluable even. It needs to be said and it is said well. People have complained that it is a bit dense but what it is is comprehensive. Still, its not easy to introduce people to reading the FAQ, philosophy or history pages even if they begin to enjoy the music.
The best way I have found is: Introduce to metal music, slowly introduce to and maybe discuss a few of the DLA reviews then let them at it. Everyone has some Lamb of Poo or Amon Amarth phase, its just tasty stuff.
Hypocrisy’s The Final Chapter, Machine Head Burn My Eyes and Heartwork by Carcass :(
The frontpage news serves the first purpose. Other changes will help make the other parts more visible as well.
No way, all the good bands are in the old reviews. The news blog bands arent more palatable when it comes to extremity. They are just as `hard`, only shit music too. What kind of an introduction is this? This stuff is 100% geared to current metal-archives, Invisible Oranges, metalsucks kind of people. They already hate the way stuff is written here and they all know the history of the website. These arent dumb people but they are never going to be convinced by a more verbose version of the same stuff they get everywhere else.
Lets see what happened with the last two people I introduced to this website (in deathmetal.org form). First dude; into heavy metal, nwobhm and Slayer, smart guy. Doesnt consume any internet metal media. Visited the frontpage and was turned off. Second, also smart guy but not into metal. Read the sidebar articles, called them extremely dense and difficult but made his way through them, now listens to Darkthrone and Chronicles of the Shadowed Ones all the goddamn time (Necroscope fan).
When all the comments you get on news blog band posts are `this is shit`, `I hate this place now` and random troll shit, it isnt a bunch of neckbeard nerds out to get you, its the part of the audience that cares enough to say something saying something. I loved this dream and I like the work, but Cargest was right (except for the philosophical bits). The audience that can appreciate the best metal is small, odd, extremely individualistic with strong opinions. If these are not the people you want to attract (not like you can help it, its them that are attracted to this place) then just sell out and make some money or something.
For Imposition: It technically isnt semantic but what I am trying to say is that the argument is futile. You are talking about a very basic way of looking at the world here. Its hard to change people`s opinions about the most minor things, there is no way you are going to be able to make a dent in something this major. The best you can do is state your position. Not your case, or argument or whatever, just where you stand.
“This stuff is 100% geared to current metal-archives, Invisible Oranges, metalsucks kind of people. They already hate the way stuff is written here and they all know the history of the website. These arent dumb people but they are never going to be convinced by a more verbose version of the same stuff they get everywhere else.”
As usual, this is moronic.
You are claiming that DMU is attempting to be a form of MA/IO with more complex verbiage, yet their audience hates us for some inexplicable reason.
Perhaps it’s because that DMU is not a “version of the same stuff they get everywhere else”. Perhaps it’s because we still hold out independence and make unique judgments, frequently in opposition to sites like MA/IO. That is why we get belligerent responses from them. It’s certainly not outrage over grammar.
“When all the comments you get on news blog band posts are `this is shit`, `I hate this place now` and random troll shit, it isnt a bunch of neckbeard nerds out to get you, its the part of the audience that cares enough to say something saying something.”
It’s peanut gallery concern troll defecation.
If you don’t realize how tiresome and destructive your whining on this subject is, you are either:
1. A possessor of a room temperature IQ
or
2. Someone who is seeking to harm the site.
Which one is it?
Oh but Wild is wrong. Look, dont read some kind of fucking world changing agenda into this shit. I am only saying that ANUS attracts ANUS people and metal-archives people are content where they are. Plus they hate you/us. Moreover, the points you raise are actually wrong, read the websites you are talking about. You remember that Corrosion of Conformity facebook post? Noticed the amount of those criticizing the pretentious language? This is usual stuff.
What is this peanut gallery crap? Do I work for you or something? Its a comments section right? Dont like it? Ban me or something, dont cry about it. This isnt some sage advice from up high, its just conversation, do you go around giving angry glares to people you meet who care to say something to you?
Yes sport, I am aware that the CoC comments criticized the vocabulary. Would they be doing this if it were a genuflecting review? I don’t think so.
As you appear to be one of those people who willingly dim your mental faculties with chemicals (doesn’t that make Jesus sad, or something?), you may not be able to notice this; but in your original post you directly stated “they are never going to be convinced by a more verbose version of the same stuff they get everywhere else.”
Clearly it isn’t the same stuff they get everywhere else – hence their reactions. How is this hard to grasp?
As to bannings, our admin has decided to attempt (again) a laissez-faire approach to the comments section, being a man who supports the notion of free speech.
However, from me, I’ll say that crow long ago took the right approach with you.
Make of that what you will.
Fucks sake not that shit again. You never understood it, you never wanted to understand it, you probably never will understand it. I dont want you to understand it, but at least its clear what kind of person you think I am. You just dont know what happened. So fuck you too guy. I wish I could PM you this shit but hey, forums gone. I bet that was me somehow too.
Do at least recall that crow considered you a particularly bad example of the horrible person you may think I am.
I am not saying this blog delivers the exact same shit. It obviously doesnt. But it isnt different enough. DLA bands are a revelatory experience. Wormreich, though maybe solid-ish, isnt. Is that clear?
By the way what is with this acting like social justice warriors. This with-the-team or negative-influence kind of stuff. I was under the impression that this much human psychology was clear to long term users of this site. After all, its decried the most often.
Despite ALL of this, I still respect you. If you think my current posting is so horrible dont worry I have much, much worse things to say which I will refrain from. I will say though, if you have the time and inclination, read my posting history (not just cursorily) and come back and say this stuff again.
You know it isnt just about this site is it? Its about metal music right? With the forums gone a resource for networking has been lost among people with certain ideas about metal. This comment section will not suffice (though I hope it will). Everyone has drifted away, been labelled problematic, been called some kind of obssessed neckbeard nerd or just plain shit on. I am not even talking about myself. It was seeing this behaviour applied to a certain poster that turned me off from our bird problem, that is it.
Incidentally I am not a Christian nor do I imbibe alcohol.
Also, I mean I was high but I keep reading that post and nowhere no-how do I get the impression that this site wants to me MA/IO. It WANTS TO TURN them. My point: this is geared for failure.
Wants to turn their audience I mean. P.S: Embedded comments suck. Oh wait, is that an attack? I better back off before I cause some majorrrrr damage.
Although it may seem lucid (I hope), the above was made in a relative state of inebriation. Please interpret it as such.
Trystero, you’re fallot on metal-archives, right? You can add me to the list of people you’ve introduced to this site. I’ve known about this place before but always brushed it off, but because of you, I’ve read hundreds of articles here and anus and changed my perspective dramatically. So thank you.
Thank you my friend, that means a lot to me, please read the reviews and especially listen to the albums on the right. It may change your life or it may just be a little interesting, but it will be something. Then again you are probably far beyond that point haha, have fun.
You miss the forums, trystero? I had a good time talking to you (and am now having a good time not talking to most of the other members), but stick around here, I’ll try to be in touch, since I can’t pm you anymore.
I miss the forums as a networking tool, I think it was extremely important and replacements are not going to work (this ground zero). That is water under the bridge though, never mind.
I think forum PMs may actually work but the two accounts I did my posting on (fallot, and when that was gone, trystero) are banned. The last account I made to basically address grievances is badmash and is not banned I believe, so you may be able to PM me there if you need to get in touch. Once again, if PMs work/that account isnt banned.
As for sticking around, since this is still the only place of its kind I will always at least read it so a shoutout might reach me, same goes for yourself and others.
Usually I can recognize commentors here by their speech but in this case I am stumped. I have a few guesses and to all of them: sup.
I had to quit posting through the forum a while ago while I worked on drug issues, but while there I went by dead last. Hopefully we can keep in touch; I mostly miss talking to you and fenrir… and that’s about it.
This site hasn’t introduced me to new metal as much as a new outlook(In many ways that seems like a more essential starting point, from what I’ve seen it’s mostly later acquired). The reviews were a little bit too much for me when I first started reading them. It forces you to stop at the end of every sentences and think, while almost all MA reviews talk about the obvious or how an album aligns with the reviewers taste. The best ever list looks somewhat arbitrary to me. I think albums like Vader “De Profundis” or Immolation “Here in After” are more deserving of a spot than most that are on there. Overall, I’ve learned a lot from coming here and reading the articles. It’s a great place.
Ah, are you Nebster on MA? Anyway I will persist in the recommendation for the reviews and albums simply because I love them but I am glad that there is at least one proven success for this website (thou). A change in outlook is the intention for this place I believe.
Oh, and the reviews make much more sense when you read them along with listening to the albums. Some of the descriptions are downright poetic.
‘”Subjective” is a human way of asserting their preference what “should” be over what is, and nothing more.’
Interestingly, Nietzsche thought the opposite: that ‘objectifying’ is a way of masking the arbitrariness of a merely human all-too-human perspective in terms of the absolute.
The ‘will to power’ at work.
Eroded Thoughts is filled with interesting, non-linear albeit somewhat clumsily executed ideas.It also maintains an uncompromisingly suffocating atmosphere through its running length. This band could’ve gone on to better things. Morta Skuld was indeed uninspiring, Morgue had potential. Rough hewn but definitely promising.
Clumsy is a good description, but the riffs are pretty good sometimes so it should be listened to at least once. Some songs come together better than others (Personality Conflict imo).