Mordhell – Grim, Old & Evil
Poland is one of those countries that churns out wave after wave of bands. Although the most famous are mainly Death Metal orientated the Black Metal attack is getting up to speed with some notable releases.
Mordhell were a jaw dropping surprise and nearly blew my ears clean off like a corpsepainted Dirty Harry. Feeling lucky, like a punk, I have been blasting this out of my house, car and headphones everyday since I got my shit-stained hands on the CD.
The intro is straight forward but when the opener, ‘Repulsive Sexual Perversion,’ kicks in with a plucky little riff and a quality drum fill full of grubby undead energy you realise you’re in for a foul treat. It’s one of those ones that always makes you tap your foot to as it bulldozes away.
At only one minute and nineteen seconds it just gets warmed up then finishes with an awesome riff that I’d love to experience in a pit because it explodes with furious aggression. There is something funny about bands in paint and spikes singing about sexual deviance. It fits with the older dirtier styles really well as makes me laugh aloud as the vocalist roars ” You’re a victim of my sexual abuse!”
So it batters its way from the speakers with an unusually addictive and enjoyable repulsiveness. There are memorable moments all the way through, especially quality songs are: ‘Sadistic’, ‘Total Fuckin’ Terror’! and ‘Mass Execution’. In places they even manage to get away with almost 1980’s glam rock-like riffs but totally saturate them with the glory of evil and Black Metal that it works nicely and comes up stinking strongly of triumph.
The guitars rip, the drumming is stumpy and nasty and the singing is brilliant, nercrotic and totally to the point. Don’t expect any pre-pubescent screeching or long vanity howling here, I think the longest bellow I found was a grotty puking of four or five seconds long.
Historically this kind of album has been about as consistent as an African dictatorship! Grim, Old & Evil contains not one bad song which almost never happens. If that’s still not good enough for you, then know that Mordhell vary things on ‘Sordid Death’ with acoustic guitars and an extremely brief use of keys to add a bit of depth. Also the final track ‘Nekrofest II’ employs a sprinkling of keys which don’t destroy the integrity of the music but instead make an emphatically satisfying end to proceedings.
In a nutshell Mordhell is a berserk genetic mutant engineered from the musical DNA of Infernal War, Natterfrost, Darkthrone, Khold & Aura Noir. From those tissues it has mutated and multiplied into a massive, unstoppable and cataclysmic steamroller of Black Thrash n’ Roll…but with more emphasis on the black. It competently covers whole spheres of the genre: dirty, catchy, heavy, grim, raw, nasty, aggressive and old school in such a fusion that you’re bound to play it repeatedly.
My final verdict is that this is fuckin’ quality and it is going on my list as one of the best albums I have heard this year. You should own it too!
I only recently discovered Rahu, who purvey original and very replayable Finish Black Metal of the highest calibre. This is a demo from 2008 that has since been released as part of a best of featuring this and their other demo on one CD.
Although there are only three tracks delivering a mere seventeen minutes of [...]
As suggested by the title of their debut demo Nachzehrer tout themselves as Black Thrash. I wouldn’t normally review such a release, not because I dislike the style but because it falls outside the purpose of this site. Anyway, this American five-piece skimp so much on the Thrash part that, aside from a few riffs, [...]
ok..I’ve got the cut yourself or die album(2004)..love the black thrashing sound of Mordhell..catchy riffs..in my opinion 5/5..as soon as i got this..its gonna be in my playlist.One of best polish bm around..
Indeed – everytime I hear it I want to head-butt stuff