Wisconsin’s Morta Skuld have been dragging their nasty cave knuckles for so long, even their fingerprints have worn off. In existence on and off since 1990, these old school warriors have been a fairly reliable if not super prolific source of no-frills, beefbrained death metal. Their early works exuded an oily, swampy charm with a sound ripped from the classic Necrophagia and Obituary deathbooks. Later albums like Wounds Deeper Than Time and 2020s Suffer for Nothing were much more furious, pummeling affairs, with elements of Vader, Malevolent Creation, and Jungle Rot in their flavor profile. The latter was an especially fragrant tomb raid with a collection of riffy, groove-heavy numbers that won the Steel ov Approval though we never gave it a proper review. 2024 sees them returning with the same lineup and overall approach for 7th full-length, Creation Undone and that’s a solid plan in my humble opinion. Can this platter earn Morta Skuld a bigger beak with which to climb the death metal pecking order?
The band do a lot of things right this time out. The album is a concise 44 minutes and songs all sit in a tight 3-5 minute window. Opener “We Rise We Fall” sets the template for what most of the album delivers —bruising, thrashy death with a nasty attitude and a big bat. As the riffs cascade, lock into heavy grooves and pulp your melon, you may be reminded of the salad days of Malevolent Creation. Some of the riffs venture into Morbid Angel territory and Dave Gregor’s death roars have a vague similarity to David Vincent. This is death metal for the old-school set and it’s effective and endearingly thuggish. Quality brutality keeps coming with the extra heavy crushitude of “The End of Reason,” and the romp and curb stomp of “Painful Conflict” smacks of recent Vomitory, which is a good thing indeed.
Track after track showcases Morta Skuld in the best possible light, leading with their strengths while hiding any glaring shortcomings. Later album cuts like “Perfect Prey” and “Soul Piercing Sorrow” bring the hammers to the poser hammering festival, with faint whiffs of Suffocation cropping up here and there to choke the weak. It isn’t until penultimate cut “Oblivion” that their steady hand starts to slip. It’s not even that the song is all that bad. It’s just less on point and skull-shaking than its peer group and it drags on too long. Closer “By Design” is better, but its doomy plod eventually sends my attention span on a beer run despite the Azagthoth-adjacent riffage. The combination of these lesser tracks causes Creation Undone to end on its backfoot rather than attacking with raging wiolence. Drop these two numbers and the album jumps from good to very good quite easily.
Creation Undone benefits greatly from the rock-solid riffery by Dave Gregor and Scott Willecke. Gregor’s been there since the beginning, and newer axe Willecke is a great counterpoint. Most tracks are fueled by pile-driving, bone-crushing leads and powerful grooves that will shake you around like a Dollar Store scarecrow. I can listen to the first 8 tracks and find any number of beefy chugs and phat grooves I appreciate and applaud. They aren’t doing anything the least bit new or innovative, just smoking your ass with vintage death tropes done well and heavily. Meanwhile, Gregor roars at you like a roid-raging psycho and former Jungle Rot skinsman Eric House takes you to the house with a brutal rampage behind the kit. And that makes sense because some of this stuff isn’t all that removed from what those long-running death groove cretins do.
Morta Skuld may never pull themselves up into the upper echelons of the death metal scene, but if they keep churning out stuff like this, I’ll happily consume it in mass quantities and ask for MOAR. Creation Undone pushes no envelopes, gives nothing back to the academic community, and provides no public service of any kind save kicking ass. The high points are quite high and only a few slips toward the end keep this from a better rating. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, so give this an obnoxiously loud sample. Rib-cracking fun lurks within.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Peaceville
Website: facebook.com/mortaskuld
Releases Worldwide: February 23rd, 2024
