Review Mhorgl - Heresiarch 2011

Tracks
01. Inheriting the Mantle of Power
02. Ophidian Legacy
03. Black Wolf Militia
04. Ravenous Wargod
05. The Seed of Rebellion
06. Fallen
07. Hostis Humani Generis
08. Impiety Storm
09. Soliloquy
10. Terror Manifesto
11. The Hubris Of The Departed
12. Purity

Band:
Vocals: Sam Moretta
Guitar: Rob Thorpe
Bass: James Campbell
Drums: Louis Rando

Discography:
The Sacrificial Flame (2007)
Antinomian (2010)

Guests:

Info

Released 3/10-2011
Reviewed 17/11-2011

Links:
mhorgl.com
myspace
youtube
last-fm

Last time I reviewed an extreme metal band from down under was with Portal and their two album whatever they were called, and that is still one of the worst duo of rubbish albums I have ever heard so naturally I was very tantalised by the prospect of looking into a new australian extreme metal band. Bearing the label of black metal in some places this band has a name that is supposed to be pronounced Morgul according to the press info, which places them with the same name as a norwegian black metal band or as the Minas Morgul which is the Tower of Black Sourcery in the lord of the rings tales (note how I demote the importance of this story by not capitalising the first letters). So the band name may be derived from two very bad things, maybe not the best of appearances from outside. The cover art and logo can hardly be said to peak interest either, the only interesting thing may be the title Heresiarch which means instigator of heresy or leader of a group of heretics. If the title reference to the black metal genre then it is still possible that we might have something interesting in our hands.

Musically we get both what we expect and what we don’t expect, it is based in the black metal genre but it moves in many other different direction like flirting with rock music and acoustic music which on paper makes it quite diverse and complex and also a bit of a heresy towards the very scared of difference mob of the black metal genre fans. The production feels a bit like the typical black metal production giving a dark and basement like sound, the singer sounds like a weasel who loves eating charcoal which of course in black metal terms tend to mean evil and brutal and whatever else the fans like to say about grunting men in black. The album has twelve tracks and a playing time of 43 minutes.

For a black metal band of this kind this band has a lot of refreshing elements, like for instance that they don’t only play the classical black metal melody that is present on every song of every album of every band in the genre. They also have two instrumental songs on acoustic guitar, imagine the face of the black metal fan when he after hearing four quite black metal songs albeit with some nice melodic touches when a completely acoustic song arrives. He then from liking this album goes to frantically hating it, in one second, I love that, I hate ordinary primitive black metal as it is just a racket of noise with one melody and a terrible singer. This album has a lot more than that and some stuff is actually quite interesting, one might say that there are seeds of something just waiting to break out.

There are two good tracks in the acoustic one, some rather decent tracks and a few that are terrible. Fortunately the terrible tracks are very and the general feel is that this album is a half decent one, sure it is not something I would chose to play myself but I am sure there are people out there who will do just that.

So if you like black metal of the primitive kind with some small twists into other metallic areas as well as the acoustic route then I can really recommend this album, it you like what people in general call music I am quite sure that you will prefer to look elsewhere for your next musical acquirement. There are some good stuff but also some really bad which makes the album barely alright and nothing I would spend any time or money on but I am probably not the intended target audience so my opinion might weigh a bit less than those of that audience.

HHHHHHH

Mhorgl Heresiarch

Mhorgl
Heresiarch