Mordium

Unlike the other reviewer, I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with a band treading a well-used path. If a band is able to craft a solid album in a long ago established style who am I to judge them? Mordium certainly know what they’re aiming off; an old school, Swedish styled melodeath release, and whilst this album doesn’t trod new ground, it does what it does very well.

The first thing that comes to mind when discussing this album is the guitar work. Simply put it’s extraordinary. It takes a lot of influence from bands such as Children of Bodom and Kalmah yet with a more thrash/speed metal vibe. The musicianship is very technical yet it’s never overdone, riffs feel organic and natural. There’s no unnecessary guitar wankery, just solid riffs throughout.

Synths are used intelligently throughout which really caught my eye. Use of keyboards is similar to Catamenia rather than the aforementioned Children of Bodom. They’re never the focal points of songs but instead serve to add background ambiance. Another comparison worthy of mentioning is Mors Principium Est, where the atmospheric keyboards are mixed with hard hitting riffs to make a solid musical front.

Another comparison that can be made between Mordium and Children of Bodom are the vocals. They’re very similar to Alexi Laiho’s yet they’re toned a tad bit more and have more character. The band occasionally mixes in some clean vocals which work well with the rest of the music, adding more dimensions and character to the music.

The overall atmosphere of this album feels very “blackened”. Not blackened in the Darkthrone/Burzum sense, but more akin to Swedish melodic black metal artists such as Dissection and Sacramentum. The music is ethereal and quite haunting at the same time. Put simply, the atmosphere is epic. It’s easy to imagine frigid battlefields and blood on snow when this album is playing. The cover art works really well in creating an aesthetic representation of the music to be found within, and is actually some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a while. It’s quite similar to Cryptic Wintermoon’s which can only be a ringing endorsement in my mind.

The only problem I can find with this album is that it just came out at the wrong time. Unfortunately, people aren’t really into the old school styled melodeath as they used to be, and more and more people are turning towards the core influenced genres (seriously, stop it with the core!). However fans of the more traditional approach to melodeath should find a lot to enjoy here, I know I certainly did. Recommended.

With melo-death bands seemingly coming out of the woodwork at this point after bigs acts like In Flames and Children of Bodom, Moridum is riding the tide. The entire feel of this album just exudes rehashed riffs, solos, and the music as a whole. The only seriously redeeming factor I have found with this album is some of the guitar work. Key word here: "SOME" of it. I feel that a solo on the track "Northern Dawn" for example, is genuinely good when it comes to technicality and musicality. With that being said, the riff directly following that solo is a down tuned borefest with nothing of any value to put on the table. Another solid solo would the be the one nearing the end of the track "Beneath the Night Sky". But sadly, the rest of it is contains the same and monotonous melodeath riffs like just about every other track. As stated before solos like the one mentioned are the only thing worth listening to out of the entire album.

Well, enough of that of guitar work. Onto everything else.

Since there are no lyrics available to base the writing style off of, so I can't say much about them. However, the vocals by themselves aren't anything terrible, but certainly nothing special. I feel Lukas was influenced an immense amount by Alexi Laiho's (of Children Of Bodom) vocal style of raspy, scream-singing. It's just sort of there. Nothing to make too much mention of either way. The drumming is solid, but also nothing very special. The production quality of it is rather weak, though. There's no punch to it, which I feel Moridum was aiming for when they produced this album. I also can't say much for the bass since it's seemingly non-existent suffering from bad production along with the drums.

In all honesty, the only two tracks I feel is interesting and would actually call for repeated listening would be "Whisper Of The Sea". The intro guitar riff has very speed metal feel to it and the drumming is fairly hard-hitting, putting forth a lot of energy to the track itself. Sadly, the vocals feel VERY out of place, since the song has a much different overall sound than the rest of the tracks on the album. But one track isn't enough to save this album as a whole. The rest of the album just continues in the same boring vein as it did before, only continuing the boredom. Outside of maybe a few moments in the final track "Through Darkness and Light" which certainly has it moments of interesting riffing and somewhat odd, yet enjoyable interludes throughout.

These kids obviously have potential, even in a trendy genre like melodeath. Just listening to a track like "Whispers Of The Sea", they also have noticeable influences in heavy/speed metal. Which they play quite well as a matter of fact. If they begin introducing more of this into their music for future releases (if any), I feel their music will have a much more interesting and original sound to it than it has at the present moment.