Leper Colony - Those of the Morbid

Angry Metal Guy

Have you ever played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? When you try to connect another actor to Kevin Bacon via the films they’ve been in, winners make that connection in the fewest “degrees” possible? A quick reference of the Archives convinced me Rogga Johansson may be the Kevin Bacon of the Swedish metal scene, perhaps the entire metal scene. You’d be hard-pressed to argue that but not to connect many other musicians to him in six degrees or less, as Rogga contributes to forty-eight active bands and has seventeen past outfits on his resume. Rogga’s longstanding relationship with German vocalist and friend Marc Grewe (Morgoth) culminated in the 2020 formation of Leper Colony, which hit the ground running with its self-titled debut in 2023, garnering a 3.5/5.0 rating from Crispy Hooligan. With Leper Colony‘s sophomore effort and first for Testimony Records, Those of the Morbid, I’m primed to find out what kind of Swede-anigans Rogga’s up to now.

Sadly, Those of the Morbid highlights one of the most significant problems with leprosy, and that is shit starts to fall off.¹ Which, in Leper Colony‘s case, means way more than a sophomore slump. Every limb left on the diseased body of the debut has fallen off Those of the Morbid‘s frame. Sure, it’s still death metal, but generic in a way that defies legitimate sonic comparison. There are faint Slayer vibes in the harmonized guitar intro of “Facing the Faceless,” I guess, and far-flung hints of Bolt Thrower in the again harmonized leads of “Realm of Madness,” but even these are ‘meh’ connections. Things of the Morbid is full of tepid Rogga riffs, the HM2 more butter knife than buzzsaw, assembled into mostly punk-infused death metal compositions. Jon Rudin (Monstrous) lays down loads of 4/4 straight beats and double kicks with tempo shifts and a few flourished fills thrown in for variation (“Those of the Morbid Inclination”). At the same time, Wombath‘s Håkan Stuvemark handles lead guitar duties, his solos adequate but uninspiring (“Master’s Voice”). And you have Grewe helming the mic again, his unhinged screams, shouts, and shrieks possibly the only thing keeping Those of the Morbid from falling further apart.

Those Of The Morbid by Leper Colony

Void of engaging songwriting fans expect from a Rogga project, Those of the Morbid has a cut-and-paste feel—photo-shopped band image included—that cling to rigid death-punk tropes and rarely color outside the lines (“Flesh to Rot to Ashes”). Lyrics are horror-themed and amateurish, with the especially juvenile, ‘Suck at the teet, of the Apocalypse Whore!’ one of the more egregious examples. Things of the Morbid is an album a younger, stuck-in-the-midwest me might have come across at Wal-Mart, snatching it up like some uber-extreme gem, but no. There is no questioning Leper Colony‘s pedigree, as each member has had a hand in some of death metal’s more influential offerings, which makes the mediocrity of Those of the Morbid even more baffling.

I’m a person who strives to find the good in everything, which has made covering Leper Colony‘s Those of the Morbid tough, as the tone of this review has been primarily negative. Are there no redeeming qualities within Those of the Morbid? Well, yes, actually, there are a couple. First, I dig the Felipe Mora cover art. It’s what drew my eye to Leper Colony in the first place. Second is the album closer, “A Story in Red.” It’s a decently executed slow-burner with melodic guitar riffs that finds Grewe channeling Lemmy Kilmister and Crowbar‘s Kirk Windstein. Taking up four minutes and fourteen seconds of Morbid‘s very short twenty-nine-minute runtime, though even this track suffers a bit from an anticlimactic fade-out instead of ending on a more confident note.

We’ve reached the end of this review together, dear reader, and I’ve said all I can say about Leper Colony and what I think of Those of the Morbid.² While I wasn’t expecting the masterpiece nearly a dozen AMG writers believe is somewhere inside Rogga Johansson, I certainly wasn’t expecting this. The bright side is that Rogga’s forty-eight other bands have more to choose from, so I’m not that put out. Playing a rousing game of Six Degrees of Rogga will be more fun than listening to Those of the Morbid, so here’s some low-hanging fruit to get you all started: Glen Benton.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Testimony Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: May 2nd, 2025

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