Insensitivicious

Well what do you know, Mikko Aspa likes grind too. I'm awaiting upcoming goth rock and adult contemporary pop albums from the man. Anyway, Morbid Savouring is a maybe on, maybe off project that plays pretty standard underground gore/porngrind. It's heavily influenced by bands like Cock And Ball Torture, early, primitive death metal and grind, Gut, and other such simple, heavy styles of music. It's a very traditional and in some ways generic look at the genre, but the fact that it's so pure and consistent is probably a good thing in a sea of bands who throw Ricky Martin covers in their albums.

There's 29 tracks on this album and most of them are right around 75 seconds long including samples, so this isn't super developed music. Songs are based around two or three very straightforward riffs that have probably been recycled from other bands (not that this is a bad thing in this style) over punk-based or blasting drums, while vocals alternate between low grunts and sneering high snarls. The song structures are all almost identical: sample, riff A, riff B, break, blast, break, blast, end, or slight variations thereof. The riffs are actually really cool most of the time, with that stereotypically malevolent and menacing, somewhat Carcass-derived three or four chord strum. It's mostly mid to fast paced, even the blasts aren't extremely quick, and overall, it's surprisingly relaxed music; pretty much all the tracks sound the same and it isn't stuff to be taken super seriously.

The content here is by and for the underground gore/porngrind scene. A lot of the riffs and structures on this album will be instantly familiar to those acquainted with the Gut discography, and it's not like this music thrives off originality anyway. It's pretty much an album that codifies and celebrates this niche style of extreme metal. This is probably the most accessible and least deranged and noisy this style has ever been, at least of what I've heard. There's pretty much nothing in the way of variation or creativity on this disc, but it makes up for it by having uniformly strong songs and cool, catchy riffs and rhythms. You don't thrash around to this album, you hang out with friends and headbang in half time. You could call this party music quite easily.

I'd recommend that death and grind fans who haven't heard this sort of style done before try this out. As I said before, this is the closest to straightforward death metal that I've ever heard this style be, so it's a good opportunity to break into something you may not be familiar with. But above all, it's just cool, relaxed music that's pretty easy to listen to through its simplicity and catchiness. Nothing amazing, but fun nonetheless.