Hailing from Houston, Texas, home to a few great USBM bands, Morbosidad are more likely known for the Spinal -Tap-like deaths of two of their drummers (one in an explosion in the rehearsal room and the other from falling of a building). Multiple lineup changes have plagued this band as well with the only remaining member being Tomas Stench. Due to such changes all releases differ immensely save for aesthetics and Spanish lyrics. Being released on Nuclear War Now! Productions, it is very easy to predict what this band has to offer musically (or lack thereof).

Deep and full sounding drums mixed way too high lead the way for stench’s standard mid pitched shriek as guitars highly distorted guitars are sandwiched in between. The guitars being recorded with the aid of standard black metal plugins but maintaining a lot more mid frequencies giving a much thicker sound. Despite the excellent sound of each instrument the mix sounds muddy and confused as the instruments fight for aural space with accommodating each other leading to a pseudo commercial as drums and vocals emerge victorious to the detriment of cohesion.

Riffs tread a thin line between sped up hardcore punk and metal as the chord progressions are very short chromatic power chords on the lower part of the neck. Occasionally the band surprises with a tremolo riff taken randomly from Altars of Madness but simplified as they do nothing but allow the singer to shriek in Spanish what seem to be broken translations a la early Sepultura.  Following the recent turn of war metal heroes Impiety, Morbosidad took inspiration in utilizing very impressive rhythmic transitions that could lead to more exciting riffs but return to the same tired riffs.

The short length of this album saves it from being a complete catastrophe due to the lack of any substantial ideas. It becomes obvious that the main reason for this group’s existence is to allow Tomas Stench to just exert his vocal chords with as much freedom as possible but with a standard war metal shriek and a few studio pitch shifting effects there is not enough variety to warrant such dependence on the vocals especially in a riff based genre. Morbosidad should shorten their songs even more and slightly increase the length of the individual phrases while using their complex transitions to add more impact at the introduction of these riffs.

There is nothing much to say about such a band. The metal world is inundated by blasphemy admirers who repeat the same musical statements with as much intelligence and autonomy as a parrot. Once again I will remove my headphones, resume with my daily life and forget that this band ever existed. A sad state of affairs when what was once the most rebellious music is infiltrated by sheep.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE