MORAST: “FENTANYL”

(Below you will find Wil Cifer‘s review of a new album by the German black metal band Morast, which was released last week by Ván Records.)

I have an odd relationship with Black Metal. If you asked me what my favorite sub-genre of metal is I would have to say Black Metal. The caveat here is certain types. This German band Morast certainly captures what my type is.

When most people think of Black Metal they think of blast beats, tremolo-picked guitar, and the production quality of a room mic in a dank dungeon. That is the sound that bores me to death. It also feels odd that a genre dedicated to misanthropy and non-conformity to mainstream metal trends would repeatedly follow a formula because “that’s how Black Metal should sound”.

Morast do a wonderful job capturing the needed worship of darkness and misery to make me smile — anguish as depressive black metal. Yet they paint a sonic picture of a junkie’s despair in a manner we have not seen done with this kind of authenticity since mid-2000s Nachtmystium.

The snarl of the vocals is articulated enough to get the message across. They drop into a lower growl on the second song as the band ushers forth a denser more deliberate attack. Some time has passed since I gave Ancestral Void (2017) a listen, but it sounds like they are more committed to the emotional current of black metal on this album. There is less of a death-doom vibe on this one, though in my initial listen I do not recall a single section where they pour on the blast beats.

A textbook doom drum pattern opens “Walls Come Closer”. The static tension of the guitar offsets this before it drags you into a dirge-drenched swamp of bleakness. They carry a more apocalyptic trudge to the blackened sludge of “A Thousand and More”. A sardonic mutter muses their narrator’s fate before the guitars bring their storm down onto your ears.

There is more dissonance in the shadows that “Akasha” is woven from. Some fans of Black Metal might be confused by the fact they never revert to a blinding blitz of speed to mesmerize you into a hypnotic drone. Instead, they employ a creepy but effective march, and they maintain the slither of lava pouring over the obliterated landscape the songs conjure in your mind.

“On Pyre” finds them once again allowing the chords to ring out in a manner more like sludge, to form an odd intersection between the two genres. This is where it feels like the emotions of Black Metal factor in more than the conventional trappings. The atmosphere formed by the guitars as the song reaches the chant of “Rise from the fire but the fire comes back” pretty much paints the picture of how the world could be seen today.

Nothing is more sinister than reality, so I appreciate a band that confronts you with this rather than hiding fantasies or obligatory occult imagery without any conviction in those beliefs and merely cosplaying the idea of Satanism. This is the album’s strength — it feels very real. The lyrical content is backed by the proper sonic tapestry to convey these themes.

This is one of those albums I can just leave on and allow to play for the course of the afternoon without getting bored with it, and if you are someone who also enjoys relaxing in the dark corners of a depraved mind taking solace in a world being burned to nothingness, then perhaps you too will find this album to be a highly enjoyable listen. Or maybe you just like heavy music; these guys have you covered there as it’s backed by an emotional heaviness, not just empty chords with lots of distortion.

https://morast-vanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fentanyl
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMorast
https://www.instagram.com/morast_doom