Let the World Burn

After two great demos, MasseMord became one of my favourite Polish black metal bands and at the time after the release of their second demo "Hatred Towards Mankind and Life Itself" I only waited for them to crown themselves on the black metal throne with two other bands: Kriegsmaschine and Thunderbolt as our country's great unholy trinity. And when "Let the World Burn" was released, it didn't disappoint and managed to convince me 100%. This was and still is one hell of a great album and I can only be proud for the fact they're Polish and I have been able to watch their evolution already through several materials.

Somehow I expected that MasseMord will choose the path of mechanical, experimental black metal playing in the vein of Thorns and Dodheimsgard on their first album. Of course I've just been fooled by the cover of the latter that appeared on the previous demo, but it was also the atmosphere of "Hatred Towards Mankind and Life Itself" that made me think that... Anyway, there surely is quite a deep shadow of the Norwegian black metal over "Let the World Burn". And yes, if I would compare MasseMord to any Norwegian band, it's going to be Dodheimsgard from their amazing "Satanic Art" EP. But MasseMord has only slightly similar style of riffing, without going into lunatic, schizophrenically mad ideas or the industrialised additions. Plus there are some hints of Keep of Kalessin's "Reclaim" MLP to make the music even more furious and ravaging. I guess it would be pretty fair to resume “Let the World Burn” as a conglomeration of classic black metal with modern feeling, which is still pretty unique and impressive.

Definitely one of the things that will hit you first, is the intensity of this music. Almost the entirety of it has been played at amazing, neckbreaking speed and it sounds almost like someone unleashed furious hordes and couldn't stop them now ("Dance of Red Nails" especially). Surprisingly many of the riffs have a strong melodic background and it sounds great in my opinion, when you have an epic feeling and melody, but played in such an angry and fast way. In addition to the bands I’ve mentioned earlier, some parts of “Let the World Burn” remind me also Anaal Nathrakh, with similar feeling and ferocity - listen to "Man's Death In My Eyes" for instance. But MasseMord controls all that madness and menace, managing to incorporate few varied parts and thus avoids the boredom and monotony. Those merciless songs at neckbreaking speed have great arrangements, but when MasseMord slows the tempo down into the midpaced playing, it doesn’t affect the quality of music, which is great and interesting all the time. Listen to "Glimmer of Despair", for instance, which begins with kind of melancholic guitar and slow drumming, almost in the Burzum-esque vein – it sounds great and maybe even too quickly it turns into the relentless chaos of drum's cannonade again... I would probably prefer this song to stay slow and with the overwhelming gloomy atmosphere that the band created at the beginning, but even in the current form I can sincerely admit that "Glimmer Of Despair" (together with "Man's Death In My Eyes") belongs to my favourite song on the album! "Uwierzyć" has rather mediocre beginning and just when I thought it will end up as a less interesting song, the mid part of it brought some great sorrowful acoustics (the atmosphere is completed by the sounds from some pornos!) and the band again proved to have many interesting ideas.

Finally I must also underline my enthusiasm for Namtar's vocals, which are very expressive and don't lack any bit of the necessary aggression. Even with the Polish written lyrics in two songs Namtar showed his great abilities. Also I really like the lyrics, with their very negative message, which can be resumed with the words "Your life is an absurd. I wish you suffering then!". Their content could be controversial and not everyone will take it seriously, but at least they're really well written and definitely belong to the most interesting for me in the whole genre. Well, just read the words like "Slime is merging into stench of you, a larvae has grown to become your heart. The end is so near the end I will make, your future so close future I will destroy...".

Add to all of this a spotless production, very clear, but powerful and one which still fits the canons of traditional black metal – the result is excellent, brutal and filled with the rotten energy. I guess it is enough to admit that “Let the World Burn” is not your average black metal album, but one, which is in the league of its own. Not many will be able to reach it.

Massemord sounds a great deal like Anaal Nathrakh; you know, that band who did one relatively brutal black metal album and then turned into a melodeath band with blast beats? But occasionally during some parts they also sound like The Axis Of Perdition; you know, that band that's too busy playing Silent Hill to write songs that go places and do things? So right off the bat, Massemord has the cards stacked against them due to sounding like two massively overrated British bands that aren't nearly as complex or interesting as they desperately try to appear.

I'm being very harsh on this band though, because Massemord is substantially better than either of those bands, though they still embody some of the more odious qualities of such artists. This is relatively poppy and accessible for an extreme metal album, and the overall musical sound very much approaches Anaal Nathrakh's 'Eschaton' album. They have the same occasional sense of uplifting melodies and blast-dominant drumming (or drum programming, I'm uncertain) as well as throat-searing screams taking up the vocal reins (though thankfully there's no cleans to be found on this album). The riffing is tremolo-based and occasionally fairly technical without ever going into masturbatory territory.

Overall, it's very well executed for what amounts to pop black metal. The production is crystal clear and full, allowing each instrument to be heard with a minimum of clutter. The riffs are pretty consistently solid and staunchly in the Anaal Nathrakh vein of alternating melodic and grindingly atonal passages to create dramatic tension. The drumming is spot on if real and very well programmed and complex if not, and the vocals, though conventional, do their job very well within the context of the music. 'Let The World Burn' is an exceedingly professional and well-made product as a whole, and I don't really have many complaints about it.

Those I do have, though, are not insignificant. Massemord can't write slow songs to save their fucking lives, and when they try to, the results, like 'Glimmer Of Despair', are embarrassing. Instead of attempting something unique with the idea of a slow black metal song, Massemord just takes the Dark Funeral route of 'take a slow Slayer song and add some dissonant arpeggios', and while Dark Funeral can pull that off sparingly, Massemord fucking can't, and the results are completely awkward and nowhere near the quality of the fast songs. The band sounds uncomfortable with tempos under blast, so what's the purpose of doing it when it's going to be that bad?

Moreover though, I'm annoyed by how the band never tries to extend itself. Massemord is something of a one-trick pony: the blasting epic. It's a good trick, and it's fine for them to stick with it, but a little bit of variation can be found even within that context! The band doesn't need to resort to cheap and nearly always lame 'have a slow song' tactics to do something interesting, and I feel that if they'd just tried to experiment with the formula a little more they would have a great album as opposed to a pretty good one. Still, 'Let The World Burn' is hardly a failure, and I can easily recommend it to most modern black metal fans without hesitation.

Some time ago a friend of mine told me about an awesome polish band he heard called Massemord and urged me to check them out. So I downloaded a song from their site and instantly fell in love with this horde. Immediately I bought this album and never had I regretted that decision. After seing them on a gig in my hometown (supporting Marduk and Koldbrann) and buying their demo "Hatred Towards Mankind And Life Itself" there, I honestly can say it's my favourite band.

The reason behind this statement is clearly heard on this album. Sure, there are hundreds or even thousands of bands that play similarly, some are better known, some less, some are old (older than Massemord's 7 years), some recently formed.
But none of them plays better or is more consistent in what they do.

This album is a big "fuck you" to all trends, posers, whiners and "evil" wannabies flooding the scene. They play their own music, not looking back but marching onwards destroying everything on their path.

First thing I noticed after listening to this release is the production. Fucking best I've ever heard. Guitars, bass, vocals, drums - I can't imagine a better quality. All producers and bands should listen to LTWB to know how Black Metal should sound like.

Composition side is equally great, mid and fast tempos with frequent slowdowns make this album extremely interesting. Guitars generate killer riffs, backed up by the bass guitar and one of the best drum performances in metal.
Vocals, too, are one of the best I've heard.

All these elements are high level in their own category, but it's combination of those that's worth praise. All of them complete each other, creating a release that has no drawbacks and never bores a listener.

If I had to compare Massemord to other bands, the first that comes to mind is Satyricon. They're certainly no copycats, only taking their best adding own ideas, which results in such devastating opus magnum.