It is not that infrequent to see bands that are put on hold right at the very peak of their career, having subsequent re-unions and new releases happening in 7, 10, 15 or even 20 years (sometimes having some singles/EPs/compilations released in-between). This is exactly the story with Morta Skuld.
The 4 piece US death metal band was definitely at their peak with Surface, going quiet for around 20 years until their next full length release happened - which it did just recently. But let's focus on the album in question here - Surface, 1997.
And while it's easy to listen to one, it's hard to dissect it and explain the strong points separately - which in it's own way already is an indication of quality material. There are no gimmicks here one can simply pinpoint and say "the album is cool because of that thing". In overview, this is just a mid-tempo death metal with nothing really standing too far out - no keyboards, no ultra-fast or ultra slow parts, no guest vocals, crazy solos, no nothing that could be cool on it's own in a not necessarily cool album.
This album is, however, very cool without all that stuff. Mid-tempo, powerful - without overpowering pressure or any "over the top" tricks, diverse - without any gimmicks that would made something special out of mediocrity, etc etc. The golden middle. Mature, if you will. Though this term was too frequently used to describe a new stage of band's degradation or shift to more accessible or event commercially attractive style. Not in this case. Here mature means what it's supposed to mean - no amateurism. Mature as in knowing how to avoid flops, as in heaving no weak parts. Everything at the level - songwriting, performance, recording.
Also, oldschool. This is another term that sticks. When you listen to this album, stuff like Sinister's "Bastard Saints", Oppressor's "Agony", Benediction's "Grind Bastard", Obscenity's "Perversion Mandking"/"Suffocated Truth", Mindsnare's "From Blood To Dust" come to mind. Your definition of "oldschool" may vary, and there are definitely some differences between this and OSDM and "classic death metal". But it is oldschool in a pure meaning of the word, which essentially means lack of anything modern. In a way, that might come as no surprise since the album in question is from 1997. But at the same time we know how many modern moves and gimmicks were invented and used in mid 90-s, and only expanded and perfected with time. Not here though.
So, essentially, what do you get with Surface?
A solid slab of midtempo oldschool(-ish) sounding death metal with a bit thrashy roots, occasional blastbeats (but only occasional and in no way overused), solid low death metal vocals (but not too low and still pretty comprehensible/decipherable), riff-based songwriting with solid riffs and moves (with some riffs being really really strong and memorable), rich song structures with quite some tempo changes and variations (but within variations riffing only - again, no gimmicks, but also perhaps a bit too "oldschoolishly" conservative), distinct verse/bridge/chorus distinctions, short and relatively simple solos, and general "to the point" attitude with almost all songs being ~4 minutes length, with no meandering or filler, and relatively same strength of all tracks, with almost no bright standouts (except, perhaps, for the opening number "The Killing Machines" that has some extra energetic "kick") but definitely no weak/filler tracks.
Alas, the sonic feast only lasts for 34 minutes. But then again - is this really a downside, or but another strong point - introduced by keeping things solid and focused? Perhaps, one has good changes of being left craving for more with that album length, but - the album itself feels very complete and truly properly structured. Again, the opening number is more energetic and has the extra "kick" - while the finishing number is a tad more slow and has a proper closing riff at the end. Same for things in a middle - it's hard to pinpoint how exactly did the band achieve it, but track placements within the album and transitions from one track to another just feel "right" and natural. In specifics, apart from aforementioned vocal department, the most prominent thing is (well, as mentioned already) the riffing, and thus the rhythm section. The pounding sound of drums is combined properly with the guitar riffing, often relying on double-bass moves, but without getting into some blastbeat frenzies that would overpower the picture (though with occasional use of blastbeats), but instead keeping things properly accented where necessary. Thus there's nothing spectacular or even really standing out about the drumming. This is the opposite of Manowar-esque drum solos - no unnecessary skills showoff at all. Yet at the same time drumming is very solid and professional. Perhaps Sinister's "Bastard Saints" title track would be a good comparison - same attitude, where drumming knows it's place, is diverse, just prominent enough, well executed, but in no way stands too far out.
The bass is loud and clear, but mostly follows the guitar pattern (apart from several occasional bass-only moves, that emphasize the overall feeling of heaviness of riffing). Well, this is not prog rock, and not tech death metal. The approach to riffing here is rather thrash-rooted, where bass follows guitar parts to emphasize them and provide the necessary heavy bottom.
And I must've used word "riffing" too many times already to explain much about the guitar parts. So I'll just mention again that riffing is heavy, but diverse and varied (and sometimes with a tiny bit of a groove feel, perhaps) - yet it doesn't use too diverse of a musical vocabulary to achieve this. There is practically no use of pinch harmonics, almost no use of tremolo picking on it's own (though quite a lot of it as a part of riffs), or any melodic chords. There are many start-stop riffs, some tapping, but - again - no emphasis on soloing at all. Though practically every track features some kind of solo, they are not in any way spectacular by modern standards (no sweep picking or tapping frenzy - just some bends), but they are properly intertwined with the fabric of the track to support track's overall atmosphere. Also it is typical that solo - whenever it appears - comes with a tempo change, specifically a slowdown. Thus, again, solos don't do any technicality showoff, but are there to add more to the atmosphere of the respective track and more diversity to the track structure.
After listening to this album from the beginning to the very end - which is very easy and natural due to the aforementioned perfect flow of things and "to the point" attitude, and partially also due to shortness of it's total time - one can't help but wonder what the other Morta Skuld albums are like. Only to find out that they are longer, perhaps with bigger emphasis on kind of a darker atmosphere, but less focused, less naturally flowing - feeling a bit more like a collection of individual riffs than a one composition (frequent scourge of death metal songwriting). But that is another story.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
