Founded in 2023, the band from Miesbach in the south of Bavaria present you 7 hate-filled black metal tracks straight from hell. After the demo "Where Life Ends Forever", the four lads have gone one step further in terms of quality.
The sinister voice of "Marbas" literally pounds the songs through the head without any consideration for victims. The two guitarists work brilliantly in harmony with the thundering bass. The whole thing is then supported by the magnificent drums, which will raise the album to a high level in the underground.
The recording, mix and master were done by the studio "Noise Apocalypse" in Lenggries, Germany.
Yearning for confirmation of death upon awakening into a surreal, hellish place one can only expect to find abysm and a final point of unrest in the fires of the end as the first animalistic noises are uttered from the maw of Bavaria, Germany-based black metal quartet Mortem Agmen as they arrive upon this surprisingly compelling debut full-length album. Writ to ensure equal grasp of throats beckoning for auld classicist harangue and melodious fixation, ‘The Path to the Abyss of Evil‘ casts its sulphuric spray not as tribute to auld ways so much as it provides a refined example of how they might balance in escalating stages of spiraling grandeur. The result is tuneful in an ancient language, wrathful but beset with uncanny and melodious energy which makes for a brilliantly repeatable debut.
Mortem Agmen was founded circa 2023 after a prior project (Skriptum) had disbanded without any results. Intended as a scaled back duo between veterans of German black metal to start, former members of Amystery would soon complete a preliminary rhythm section. The general idea of their approach to black metal is moderately raw with a serious-faced application of melodic aggression and this was clear enough when their first demo tape (‘Where Life Ends Forever‘, 2023) released soon after. Lead by consistent percussive bane and dual rhythm guitar arrangements which approach the surreal, the possessed and the gloom stricken there were both old and new traditions of German black metal rooted in those first four songs and as it’d turn out they’d all factor into this full-length either as an already completed song or ideas taken from their previous project which were later expanded upon in the process of making the demo. Though that tape wasn’t bare bones it was not fully representative of the effect of this fully fleshed production, an always somewhat tuneful and ever-winding path through raw melodic black metal which reaches for triumphal and classicist motions rather than overtly sentimental drifts.
In fact if there is a main point of conversation, or, characteristic to boast here on Mortem Agmen‘s debut it is the guitar work and how expressive it remains atop the seamless and well-tempered presentation of the drums. The interplay between those two forces are the core appeal of the release for my own taste and this leaves the bass guitar audible but supportive and the vocals set aback, taking long breaks to let the riffs breathe while offering scalding beastlike noises when called upon. While I didn’t want to compare this experience with early Lunar Aurora simply because this drummer was in that band for about a year or so, there is some of that congested and clashing atmospheric froth found on ‘The Path to the Abyss of Evil‘ as well, though this is a more direct melodic black built fusion centered around finesse rather than hammered apart glass. The first two pieces on the album (“Forest of Forgotten Souls”, “Time of Evil”) help grant us this induction, quickly selling the album as a guitar-fronted event in many respects. For my own taste “Time of Evil” almost gets us there in a colder nigh Norwegian tremolo-picked trod by comparison as we find an above average render, intense interplay between performances, and flow which is distinctly ‘old school’ in its stomp (see: ~3:33 minutes into “Time of Evil”).
That said, it was “Trapped in the Way of Darkness” that’d pushed more resolutely into the dance of rhythm guitar built melodicism and caught my full attention to start. This is where the major voice of this album checks in strongest and find its gloom-stricken sway, bleeding that feeling into slightly more galloped-out “Destruction of Soul”, trading some of the punctuative heavy metal driven moments for a more fluid wash over the song; What appears to be an unassuming debut from a lesser known band only continues to impress from that point on as Side B holds fast on this sensation and its momentum, threshing through “Vortex of Flames” into another ‘epic’ melodic piece and the highest peak of their efforts here with Proclamation of Dark Victory” another nearly eight minute showing. The building hum of this piece doesn’t necessarily add anything new to their rhythmic vernacular at that point but cranks its resonance, fueling a slow-burning and captivating effect as the album crosses through its storm before reaffirming the band’s allegiance with Satan in closure.
Apart from the artificial canvas filter on the cover art and fairly straight forward, or average lyrics I’ve found Mortem Agmen‘s debut heavily repeatable and eerily blissful in its rhythm guitar pursuits, not only for their broader sweeping movements but for the directive bursts and blasts from the drums which steady the ship as often as they send it whirling. Any fan of heavy and even some thrash metal etched bones applied to semi-melodic black metal guitar music should find some manner of intense immerse within this album and I’d especially recommend taking it in as a complete listen in one sitting as to absorb all that they’re offering here within a very reasonable ~42 minutes. A high recommendation.
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