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Mörbid Carnage > Night Assassins > Reviews
Mörbid Carnage - Night Assassins

Mörbid Carnage - Night Assassins - 70%

ThrashManiacAYD, June 5th, 2010

Mörbid Carnage, you say? Morbid, carnage? Surely there is no more metal name than what these thrashing Hungarians have chosen for themselves. And with an umlaut too? Oh behave! Underneath this veneer of uber-metal dedication we have a band dedicated to the core to thrash metal and another one sitting right in the middle of the recent trend for reviving everything that kicked and thrash in the mid-late 80s with their debut album "Night Assassins".

One listen to "Night Assassins" will tell you all you need to know about the style being attempted here. It's all about the classic thrash template recently stabbed and hacked at by Warbringer, the closest in sound to Mörbid Carnage of the pack currently somewhat making up the A-list of the revivalist bands. Think a passionate performance akin to Kreator’s "Terrible Certainty" played out at breakneck speed, rasping vocals, tongue in cheek lyrics and serious amounts of beer and metal being consumed in the rehearsal room practices. Finding factors of their output that separates Mörbid Carnage from their contemporaries is difficult considering the severe artistic limitations within this style but if the current crop of thrashers were ranked on passion and energy these guys would be near the top. With 4 of the 7 songs reaching at least 5 and a half minutes the band have allowed themselves time to add more detail to the songs; a point they may not have met in variation but the extra time does at least earn an opportunity to repeat some of the structures found within each song.

For the full 36 minutes of this album Mörbid Carnage keep the thrashometer well and truly in the red, wasting no time in smashing you repeatedly with their chops and creating the high energy environment key to this genre. Naturally the overall lack of variation and absence of any jaw-dropping riffs limits the albums' potential to old school thrash fans only but you can be well sure that this material has the enjoyment factor within suited to put on a quality live performance should they get to bring it outside Hungary.

Originally written for www.Rockfreaks.net

War-lusting thrashathon! - 70%

necroluciferia, June 3rd, 2010

Hungary appears to be home to the largest amount of bands of whom I have never heard. While I don’t doubt there are some artists over there worth discovering, as a geographical location it’s not one that would instantly spring to mind when I hear the phrase thrash metal. Morbid Carnage is certainly a new band to these ears, and not surprisingly as this is their first full-length release with only one split with fellow Hungarians Concrete to their name. With names like Blasphemy (vocals) and Churchburner (guitar), if I didn’t know better I’d expect something much more blackened in sound and as far as thrash metal goes, well, let’s just say this would probably scare the crap out of any baseball cap and hi-top sneaker wearing bandwagon jumpers who think thrash begins and ends with the party-friendly sounds of Municipal Waste.

‘Warlust’ gets pounding straight in with a thundering bassline, furious drums and sharp, angry riffing. It’s clear that Morbid Carnage is definitely lusting for war and ready to show no mercy and tear you a new one. They certainly can’t be accused of having a sound that is thin or lacking as this is heavy and aggressive as fuck and delivers one crushing blow after another with no messing about in between. ‘Slaughtering’ comes in at a pace that is not too fast or too slow but gives the impression that they mean business. It has a really dark, sinister tone to it and almost a deathly leaning that has me thinking of early Sepultura.

There’s an instant, blazing guitar solo that hurries in on ‘Deviant’ at a frenzied pace, skitting about over a powerful wall of sound. Speed is high up the agenda, which is obvious when you hear the fast and furious riffage on ‘Funeral Pyre’. The gang chants here and on ‘Night Assassin’ have that punk delivery to them and suit the music well. Vocals do take some getting used to; they are pretty raw and kind of barked out in what I’d describe as a cross between Mille Petrozza and John Tardy. At just under 40 minutes in length this doesn’t overstay its welcome. There’s nothing fancy about it, and nothing particularly new either but these seven tracks are catchy and aggressive and just make you want to bang your head – what more do you want?

Written by Luci Herbert for http://www.metalteamuk.net

Mörbid Carnage - Night Assassins - 65%

Memnarch, May 28th, 2010

“Night Assassins” is the blistering debut from Hungarian thrash outfit 'Morbid Carnage'. Hungary isn't a country known for thrash metal, so how do the Hungarian's fare against the deluge of other new thrash bands around at the minute? Not too shabby at all, to put it bluntly. “Night Assassins” seems a fairly short offering, clocking in at thirty six minutes, but infact only has seven tracks.

Right from the off-set, the band get straight to the point with fast riffing, cut-throat vocals and pedal to the floor drumming, if you're looking for melody and intricate technicality, then you'd be wise to look elsewhere. Overflowing with influence from the teutonic thrash coming out of Germany in the eighties, this is by no means original, as is evident from opener 'Warlust' which bears a heavy resemblance to Kreator, with the frenzied riffs and vocals which could quite easily be Mille Petrozza's. Mid-point the song disintegrates into a breakdown, but this let-up doesn't hang around for long before the intensity picks up again and the song finishes up with an exceptionally groovy riff for which you could be forgiven for nodding along to.
The style of music in the first song is pretty much par for the course for the rest of the album. 'Slaughter' is crammed with cranium nodding riffs, machine gun drumming and malevolent vocals, couple this with the flaying intesnity of 'Funeral Pyre', it's gang vocals and strapping exit riff which could easily be a lost exceprt from 'Pleasure to Kill', any fan of savage thrash will be onto a winner with this. The main problem though with this album is that it reminded me so much of the 'classic' thrash metal bands that I said to myself “Sure I'll go and listen to a bit of Sodom or Kreator now”, because what Morbid Carnage make up for in sheer energy, they lack the variety and longevity their hero's possessed. Towards the end of the album it becomes a little tiresome, the blitzkrieg and battery never gives an inch. “Empty Graves” and “Deviant” have the attitude, and they have the riffs, but you can't help but say to yourself “Have I not heard this all before?”. The album does drag quite a bit at points, and none more so than “Castle in Pain”. The main fault with it is that it is far too long, it could quite easily have been sliced in half, shorter, and more to the point. It does contain some decent passages, but these just end up swallowed by the lackadaisical chugging bloating the song. If you want the perfect blueprints as to how to execute a lengthy thrash song well, look no further than Canadian's 'Vektor'. The weakest song on the album without a doubt. The title track caps the album with higher quality at least than the previous song. Shorter, with turbulent riffs, and Slayer-esque sections, and is on a whole very catchy, ending the album on a high note.

The music is right in your face, and 'Morbid Carnage' mean business, there's no denying that, but they could do with broadening their horizions, for for this is a straight up eighties thrash stampede with little originality whatsoever, not that I find that bad, many people prefer that, but if the band want more exposure then it would be a wise move to find more inspiration from elsewhere. One thing I've got to hand to them is that they aren't another Bay Area rip off, as is so common in the current 'thrash revival' which is happening, although it isn't wholly original in any sense, it is still way ahead of the bland, vapid tripe Evile and the likes are producing. I could definitely sit to this and have a few cans, but if for long term playability, it doesn't really hit the spot. One thing's for sure, they get a definite ten out of ten for effort and genuinity. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of Nocturnal, Witchtrap, Hellish Crossfire and the ilk for a listen. One thing to take into consideration for the next album though, change the damn cover art, it's incredibly clichéd, and pretty much just terrible.

Written for www.archaic-magazine.com

Upholding the rank of Private in the Thrash Army - 62%

autothrall, May 12th, 2010

Earlier this morning, local authorities discovered a swollen corpse caught in some anchor ropes down by the marina. The corpse has been identified as Thrash Metal, a 25 year old woman who just last year graduated from Been There University, where she majored in Done That. There is evidence that the victim was both strangled and molested, and authorities suspect a raving gang of lunatics who have recently moved into the area, wearing military surplus bullet casings and dingy denim jackets covered in pins and patches. If you should see these men, please avoid any physical contact, and try to stay indoors, before calling the Taste police.

Alright, perhaps I'm taking the piss out of this record a little too far, but you need look no further than its cover art to understand exactly what you're about to hear. This is violent retro thrash with a filthy street mentality, a flurry of fast and familiar riffs, and a crazy vocal/drummer named Blasphemy (aka Lédeczy Lambert of Ahriman and Fagyhamu, some decent black metal acts) who howls and beats the fuck out of his vocal chords much more than the average retrohammer. The word 'thrash' will be uttered on this album, and the band are clearly out for nothing more than a good time. They've got an umlaut in their name, and the name itself is culled from the first and last words of many other bands. I suppose you don't hear this style often from Hungary, so there is the added novelty of their locality, but really this just sounds like a slightly more violent alternative to the retro thrash and black/thrash of both Swedish and American bands.

As such, it has its work cut out for it among so many other, similar acts, and the strength here will rest in the riffs. The riffs are actually decent fun, taken from the usual suspects like Tankard, Destruction, and perhaps an older, 'retro' band like Nocturnal Breed. If I say the 'r' word too often here, just kick me in the teeth, but I can think of no other way to put it. This has all been done to death, especially in recent years, but if you're in the mood to take a baseball bat and smash up some trash cans in the nearest alley, a track like "Deviant" or "Empty Graves" should suffice. I also thought the "Castle in Pain" was worthwhile, with a nice lead and some bleeding edge, pure old thrash rhythms that did evoke a rhythm in my neck and did not drain my enthusiasm for the 7+ minutes. The rest of the seven songs were fair, if not impressive overtures to the bands' still ripe influences.

Mörbid Carnage seem like they'd be good fun to hang out with, and I'm all for the promotion of riotous acts through street thrash, but this album simply treads no new ground, and doesn't do much of note with the ground we were already standing upon. Crack open a beer, shut off the brain, and have a little fun with Night Assassins, but this is more the one night stand of rough, average intercourse than the serious, loving relationship.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com