Tepid…
Released through Werewolf Records / Hells Headbangers on 6 January 2017
Reviewed by Jason Guest
Thirteen years in and Mexico’s Mordskog are releasing their first full length, the coincidentally-titled XIII. Mysticism and malice abounds in this distinctly second-wave-influenced corpus and the atmosphere is suitably dense, dark and disturbing, but it doesn’t quite fulfil its ambitions. Opening tracks ‘Lautum Novedialem’ and ‘Nascentes Morimur’ both are well-structured and well-executed but there’s a dryness to them both that hinders their impact. ‘Aequo Pulsat Pede’ picks the pace up a little but the track feels too contrived, too precise. The same goes for ‘Pulvis уt Umbra Sumus’ and ‘Mors Est Vitae Essentia’, this latter track threatening to do something but falling short. And so it goes for rest of the album. With production too clinical to be considered ferocious, where it should be burning with a devastating coldness, it’s tepid and frozen. Technically, they’re very good and can construct a good track, but waiting for something to happen is not a good way to listen to an album…
5 out of 10
Track list:
- Lautum Novedialem
- Nascentes Morimur
- Aequo Pulsat Pede
- Pulvis уt Umbra Sumus
- Mors Est Vitae Essentia
- Ad Me Venite Mortui
- A.M.
- Mors Vincit Omnia
- Todos ustedes deben morir esta noche
