The Batlord

Demo Today Gone Tomorrow: I Couldn't Think of Anything More Clever - Part V

Morbid: December Moon - 1987

If you don't know who Morbid are then you are stupid.




Another band that played the death/black/thrash game. This band is mostly distinguished by having been Dead from Mayhem's first band. I'd only listened to this once and didn't really remember anything about it, and frankly I was all set to say, "Pah, this blows. If it weren't for Dead nobody would give half a shit about these losers." This band is actually infinitely better than Mayhem. That isn't necessarily saying much. As far as I'm concerned all that you have to do to be better than Mayhem is not suck for all but two or three songs on your album.

These guys aren't nearly as savage as some of the death/black/thrash bands of this time period. They even manage to be rather melodic at times. For all I know, them being from Sweden, they might actually have been influential on Gothenburg melodic death metal. To make up for any lack of meathead brutality they have some truly catchy, kickass riffs that would make any band of their ilk sick with envy. So don't think that these are a bunch of pussies.

Dead is really an amazing vocalist on here. If you remember that this was released in 1987 when Norwegian black metal was just a gleam in Euronymous' eye, and the now stereotypical "necro" vocals hadn't been heard before (so far as I know) they are even ground breaking. There is no death metal growl here. Dead's vocals are the same horrid rasp you would imagine they would have been on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas had he lived. On a death thrash demo from the mid-to-late eighties they really make it sound unique and cool.

One last thing that I have to point out is that though I might prefer Morbid to Mayhem they do not have the dark, creepy atmosphere of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. This is death/thrash after all and all the creepy vocals in the world aren't gonna change that. 'Tis what 'tis, but I still prefer consistent quality over moments of brilliance.

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