Godless Dominion

An eerie spacey, synth prolog begins proceedings, punctuated by the odd owl hoot and ringing clash of swords, with a howl of synth voices low down in the mix. Of its kind, its extremely effective.

For the most part, Mort (Ger) deploy a simply guitar, bass and drum assault on ‘Godless Dominion’, tracing the well-trodden path forged by Darkthrone. A solid, but overly balanced, guitar tone, audible bass with very little in the way of sustain, and a well-organized, competent battery of drums suits the stripped down, monochromatic approach that the band has adopted. The eponymous title track begins with a rather jarring death-metal style growling section of vocals prior to the standardissue Nocturno Culto-style vocals. This piece is effectively two separate riffs, conjoined in the middle by a clumsy exposed bass fill in the middle. It’s OK, but is more of a doodle than a properly thought out song, and doesn’t really hang together.

‘Stormride’ is where the album kicks into gear, and is the track that elicited my interest in Mort (Ger) in the first instance. Its central riff reminds me of the less symphonic aspects of ‘Pure Holocaust’ era Immortal , embellished with touches of early Bathory, both musically and lyrically. It is simple, effective and does not outstay its welcome.

‘Morbid Realms’ obsesses over the riff around which Black Sabbath’s ‘Black Sabbath’ revolves, finally escaping its clutches to hammer out a riff straight off of ‘Under A Funeral Moon’, but its competently done. ‘Reign in Hate’s riffs revolve around melodies picked out in several positions against an open stringed accompaniment, although the piece is marred somewhat for me by the unwelcome reappearance (albeit briefly) of the death metal vocals. The same can be said for the following track, ‘Rise, My Inner Demon’. ‘Frankonian Wrath’ is a ninety second blast of speedy riffage counterpointed by a slower theme. Fast, slow, fast, slow, stop, basically. Its point eludes me.

More grunting spoils the riffing in ‘An Unsilent Storm’, whilst ‘While Heaven Burns’ opens up with a ‘Blood, Fire, Death’ era Bathory riff, but unravels unsatisfyingly into a directionless, droning plod before returning to the main theme. The last two tracks display most of the same characteristics as the nine that preceded them. However, a delightful surprise awaits the listener who perseveres to the end: whilst the band’s cover of Ungod’s ‘Lake of Frozen Tears’ is unremarkable, the head-banging refrain to the final track, ‘Made in Hell’ (‘I am… MADE IN HELL’) makes this otherwise uneven album worth seeking out.