Morbid Slaughter – A Filthy Orgy of Horror and Death Review

I once had a friend who could suck air into his own ass and fart it back out. As a kid, it provided me hours of laughs and a few failed attempts at imitating his technique. I say this not to be shocking or disgusting, but because on my third or fourth listen of Morbid Slaughter’s A Filthy Orgy of Horror and Death, this struck me as a fitting metaphor for what the creative process for this album must have been like. In rapt silence, I imagine the band spreading their metaphorical buttcheeks to draw in the atmosphere of first-wave acts like Hellhammer and early Bathory, letting it fester in their intestines long enough to give it their own unique stench, and farting it out in a 28-minute blast that I can’t imagine will please anyone, other than those willing to overlook a lack of songcraft and quality riffs for a DIY, ‘true metal’ aesthetic.

To be fair, this Peruvian trio’s debut full-length sounds exactly like what you’d expect an album called “A Filthy Orgy of Horror and Death” to sound like: dirty riffing comprised solely of simple punky chords, drumming that varies between D-beats and messy blasting, songs that never contain more than three riffs, and sleazy psychopath and zombie-obsessed lyrics. Opener “Cannibal Butcher” exhibits this as well as anything, riding on a main riff that sounds like an unenthused Sodomizer before breaking into a chorus riff that fails to elicit any sense of excitement or energy.

The remaining six tracks largely follow suit. “Chainsaw Blade” and “Torture” may up the tempo a bit, and “Zombie Splatter Axe” features a bit more swagger in its verse, but it’s really only “Death’s Cold Blood” and “Fuck Off (We Murder)” that offer true variety – the former a doomy slog whose five-minute runtime is mercilessly repetitive, the latter a cover of GG Allin and the Murder Junkies which ends up sounding like a Midnight demo embellished with 80s punk gang shouts. At two-and-a-half minutes, this cover is both the briefest and by far the best song on the album.

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Really, the only thing that Morbid Slaughter sort of have going for them are the vocals. Rather than a typical black metal rasp, vocalist Envenom utilizes what sounds like an airy, strained whisper forced up a few decibels. While unique and chilling, I can’t help but wonder if his technique is due to a lack of expertise rather than artistic intent. Still, credit where credit’s due: his ten-second screech at the end of closer “Slay with Steel,” while sounding downright painful, is wretched, inhuman, and, most importantly, refreshing, because it signifies the album is finally over.

A Filthy Orgy may not be a total disaster – the production is raw but biting and discernible, and the speedy guitar solos are eerie and melodic – but the riffs are tired, inoffensive, and so repetitive they make the songs feel twice as long as they actually are. I appreciate Morbid Slaughter’s intent to raise the old-school flag, but it comes across as contrived and insincere at best, and an excuse for lazy songwriting and poor musicianship at worst. Whereas works like Sarcofago’s INRI felt courageous and revolutionary despite their sloppiness, this feels like a carbon-copy of a carbon-copy of a carbon-copy, churned out by a group who have probably analyzed the metal scene with scholarly abandon, right down to the “v”s instead of “u”s in the album cover. Rather than filling me with riotous spirit, this makes me long for a time when everything was fresh, as opposed to retro-this, retro-that. Even in metal, trveness only gets you so far – bad music is bad music, and there’s nothing here to keep one coming back. Or even have one visit in the first place.


Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Boris Records
Website: facebook.com/morbidslaughter
Releases Worldwide: September 4th, 2015

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