The hoods, studs, Venom and Bathory shirts say it all…
Review by Dominik Seres
Release date: 4 September 2015
South America has always been an ample supplier of filthy and raw metal ever since the early days. Sarcofago, Holocausto, Goat Semen, Embalmed Souls, Kulto Maldito and others have firmly established the continent as a prime breeding ground for all that’s extreme. Morbid Slaughter, with a couple of demos and an EP under their belt, leave no room for doubt about their intent and allegiance: the band name and their photos rife with hoods, studs, Venom and Bathory shirts make it clear for anyone that the name of the game is Black/Thrash in the vein of the ’80s.
The album starts off suprisingly bad: uninspired riffs lacking any real power or punch, boring thrash-by-the-numbers songwriting. The hissing Smeagol-ish vocals sound out of place, they would serve their purpose better in some pure black metal outfit. Okay, their chosen genre isn’t about rampant innovation and boundary-pushing experimentality, but there are better ways to utilise the style’s formulae. With the GG Allin cover at the center of the album we reach rock bottom: pulling off a convincing cover of the world’s favourite Public Animal is no easy feat, bigger and better bands had tried and failed, and Morbid Slaughter is no exception.
After the less than inspiring first half I wasn’t expecting the record to turn any better, but suprisingly these Peruvians saved all the aces up their sleeves to this point. Kicked off by a tasteful track of Hellhammer-worship (the band’s exhumation of Switzerland’s finest is as good as bad the botched GG cover was), followed by two songs of pure thrashing fury, it sounds like if the two halves of the album were recorded by two different bands. Due to the energic and insprired nature of the songs even the shortcomings of the vocalist are not as evident as before. If these three songs were released as an EP, it would have easily gotten 8.5 points.
In the end, I am left scratching my head: we have a horribly uneven album, half of it’s solid, second-tier thrashing black metal, the other’s boring drivel, coming dangerously close to the self-styled “thrash revival”-bands of the late ’00. A Filthy Orgy of Horror and Death being their first full-length, based on the second half I’m going to give Morbid Slaughter the vote of confidence, and add half a point to my intended score.
5.5 out of 10
Track listing:
- Cannibal Butcher
- Zombie Splatter Axe
- Chainsaw Blade
- Fuck off (We Murder) (GG Allin & The Murder Junkies cover)
- Death’s Cold Blood
- Torture Without Anesthesia
- Slay with Steel
