Moral Collapse
by Moral Collapse

From Mercury 04/12/2021 19:59 | #268485

(Not much to say by way of parenthetical opening statement except this is a kickass Death Metal album that provides some of that sick, thick, intense Technical Death metal as well as really mind-bending avant-garde and experimental metal.)

What a siiiick debut album! At first I was mostly impressed by the chops of the band and their excellent no-holds-barred technical death metal attack, then as the album progressed I was blown away by the excursions and risks this album goes on/commits to. The middle eastern-sounding soloing (a saxophone I think that is at first, then guitar soloing) on "Abandoned Rooms of Misspelled Agony" is perfectly executed and sounds flawless and creates an excellent atmosphere for the track. The weird noisy experimentation on "Suspension of Belief" and then "Vermiculus" was borderline-orgasmic. Really the entire journey which is "Suspension of Belief" and especially the super deep bass percussion that comes in is incredibly cool and almost otherworldly, and of course on tracks such as "Sculpting the Womb of Misery" the whole band is grooving and clicking so masterfully and hitting me with just some of the coolest riffing I've heard - while also finding time to break it down to these weird and oddly timed bits, its almost too good.

This is just an all around great album. Its a record that attempts to be both unabashedly badass Technical Death Metal while also flexing its muscles in a more abstract avant-garde VERY Non-Death metal way as well as create a album-length slab of great flowing and unified music and it succeeds in all those things. There are gorgeous melodic guitar solos and there are moments that sound like almost a modern take on that classic evil Slayer sound, etc. There is just so much. I'm finding it tough to express all the interesting music the band fits in here while also not letting this comment balloon out of control.

Oh and that violin noodling and discordant and creepy vibe and that strange vocal on the closing track "Trapped Without Recourse" is such a strange and fascinating thing. It is zero percent metal of any kind yet it still somehow fits with the whole flow of the album and finishes the album off with a whimper that is both unexpected and memorable.

While I think this is not quite the masterpiece that Imperative Imperceptible Impulse is, I find it stellar and quite impressive that it challenges that album in many ways in its rendition of Death-meets-Avant Garde metal. In many ways this Moral Collapse album is more clearly a Death Metal album with moments of somewhat isolated (while fitting nicely alongside the Death Metal bits) experimentation. Ad Nauseam's album from this year seems to be a different animal that manages never to be fully one or the other but somehow at all times is both. I don't know if that makes sense. But I will say if you love Technical Death Metal, Avant-Garde/Progressive Metal or extreme music you are formally recommended this record by me.