Morbus Grave - Feasting the Macabre

Angry Metal Guy 60

2022 saw the debut by Italian death metal low-lifers Morbus Grave splatter on the walls of the metalverse like so much gore slop. Lurking into Absurdity was like a moist and sticky love letter to Autopsy, Impetigo, and Pungent Stench, with no fucks given for refinement or subtlety. It was caustic, greasy and sleazy and therefore it was good (shit)fun for all. The band crammed in ominous doom segments with a vague second-wave black metal vibe and it all came together in delightfully nauseating ways. I still go back to it when I need a booster shot of distasteful abominations so it must have struck a raw nerve. Fast-forward a scant year and change and we get the diseased follow-up Feasting the Macabre and surprise, surprise, it sounds like a pus-filled blister torn open to reveal the grotesqueries within. It’s gross-out death metal for those who wish Autopsy sounded less healthy and hygienic, and it all but guarantees you’ll need a hydrochloric acid sponge bath when it’s all over. Are you on board yet, you sick little freak?

The Morbus Grave blueprint is more or less the same here, with punky, rowdy death mixed with doom and blackened edges, but the overall product feels a touch more “polished” and “smooth” this time. That said, this is still a big ole bucket of pig entrails and goat semen that was left in the sun all day. The stench of extremity fills the ear nostrils immediately on proper opener “Where Evil Dwells.” It sounds creepy, low-fi, sludgy and all-around shitty as it lurches from mid-tempo gallops to unsteady, wobbly blasting. The Autopsy-isms are mixed with The Return era Bathory and touches of punky d-beatery for maximum destruction and it works. Frontman Erman sounds like he’s having a massive brain seizure and by the end he sounds like he’s in vocal rigor mortis. “Funeral Embodiment” is thrashy and savage with sweet vocal bits that reek of early Mayhem. The minimalist yet unusual riffs are fun, as are Erman’s increasingly deranged vocals.

Back-to-back ass kickers “Congregation of the Exult” and “Feasting the Macabre” are high points loaded with slimy riffs and unsettling vocal excess. There’s a blunt force to the former that’s nicely offset by eerie, creepy moments that sound like horror soundtrack bits, and the latter is d-beaty caveman thuggism and it’s so goddamn thick and slimy, it’s like slipping on someone’s intestines and falling into a mass grave. “Dissolving Obscurity” also deserves mention for its Winter-meets Mayhem-meets-Autopsy cluster fuck of gruesomeness. This one is a queasy little puppy that will make folks question your metal health. At an anorexic 28 minutes (including an intro, outro, and one interlude), there’s not much meat on the rotting bone. The sheer brevity makes Feasting the Macabre feel like a too-quick dip in an abattoir’s waste collection pool, and it comes across as somewhat incomplete. It has high points, but a few numbers don’t quite rise to that next level of essential death metal listening, which is annoying on such a short offering. Then again, Morbus Grave aren’t the band to drop a Record o’ the Year anyway. They just club you with a shit-splattered bat and leave you to die in pain, and I respect that.

As with last time, the star of the show is Erman and his twisted, hideous throat tortures. This guy takes the Chris Reifert model and goes 10 layers deeper into revolting unhingement. He rampages across every song like a loony toony cookie monster and his overdoing it is a big part of the fun. Edy and Blacksodomagickkk (don’t ask) do a lot with a little, utilizing minimalist riffs that walk the line between death and black metal and generally sound really olde. They d-beat, they thrash, they chug, and at key moments they doom, but they do it all in a threadbare way that sounds evil and enigmatic. Meanwhile, Danny Guerra pounds away at the kit with great vengeance and furious anger. He’s not the most polished pummeller in the biz, but you get pulverized nonetheless.

Morbus Grave are good at their very specific brand of damp, bloody death metal and they’re in the running to carry the banner brandished by Autopsy should those legendary sleazebags move on to shittier pastures. You can snag Feasting the Macabre without fear of being let down because this stuff is more fun than a gallon of spoiled shrimp milk. It’s a fast, fun shotgun blast to the face and we all need that sometimes. Don’t play this at work though, ever.



Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Memento Mori
Websites: morbusgrave1.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/morbusgrave |
Releases Worldwide: July 26th, 2024

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