Morbid Fascination of Death

I have read that Carpathian Forest are back from the dead. The guys with the moronic affinity for ugly pictures released "Morbid Fascination of Death" at the beginning of the 21st century. In my humble opinion, the songs do not have the very strong quality of their later works. Admittedly, nobody can deny that the band had already inhaled the spirit of black metal. Nevertheless, the here presented full-length is no masterpiece. I am speaking of an album that represents the aforementioned sub genre in a pretty dubious way.

One thing is for sure, Carpathian Forest do not present the typical Norwegian art. Icy leads that scream "Transylvanian Hunger" have not found a place here. Even the very fast songs like the eponymous band anthem have a more or less warm aura. During the first half of the record, the formation does not deliver dozens of experimental sounds, but the guys dare to integrate an almost bluesy guitar licks in "Through Self-Mutilation" at 1:38 minutes. This is just a gag, however, the band is also interested in gloomy sounds that could give King Diamond a very welcome feeling.

For example, the strange configuration of "Cold Comfort" (piano and saxophone create a horror scenario that liaises with the baleful lead vocals) spits on stylistic conventions. Even more remarkable, the tenth track also does not rely on vehement guitars. Nevertheless, this is no incomprehensible or even humorous black metal, by far not. The band just feels free to break the boundaries of the narrow-minded sub genre from time to time. This approach lends the work a special flavour, but to be honest, these tracks do not meet my understanding of the sub genre. Not to mention the meaningless closer which bores the listener for more than nine minutes with a kind of coffee house music. This is no experiment, but a waste of time and the permanent saxophone tootling just sucks. By the way, there was no need to prove evidence that the band also likes atmospheric tunes - the more typical and solid "A World of Bones" already covers this segment.

Solid is, from my point of view, the right term to describe the first half of "Morbid Fascination of Death". I cannot report on outstanding songs, because there are none. "Doomed to Walk the Earth..." or "Knokkelmann", for instance, deliver acceptable black metal fodder, no more, no less. The songs are neither extremely harsh nor do they shine with a great number of overwhelming or at least memorable sections. Thus, it is almost a perfect match that the production is more or less unremarkable as well. It does not suffer from major flaws and that's it. In summary, I am sorry that I cannot write better things about this album. Nevertheless, I eagerly await the comeback of the sick horde.

Various visions pass through my mind whilst listening to "Morbid Fascination Of Death", the third full length from Sandnes, Norway's Carpathian Forest, all dark and negative thoughts. From the moment I picked up the album and looked at the cover of Nattefrost crisscrossing machetes, and opened it up to the disturbing and sexual photos of a corpse painted girl topless in black lace panties slicing her throat and cutting her wrists, to the photos of the band armed with assault rifles and grenades presented as "black metal terrorists", I get pretty hyped every listen still since I first purchased it. Released on Avantgarde as well as a 2007 re-release from Peaceville(the one I own), "Morbid Fascination Of Death" is a distorted look at death, war, blood, lust, bloodlust, perversion, psychosis, depression, suicide, schizophrenia, and genocide in a genuinely entertaining and enjoyable black metal punk infused fashion. Ten tracks are there here plus two bonus tracks which are a cover of Mayhem's "Ghoul" and the demo version of "Nostalgia". This album would also be the last to feature one of the original founding members of Carpathian Forest, Nordavind , and the first to include now permanent staple Daniel "Vrangsinn" on bass and guitar.

The skills as musicians that the members of Carpathian Forest possess individually is best described as a frantic organized chaos, each member being a solid part in the cogs of this death machine. Vrangsinn and Nordavind are exceptional guitarists, true executioners when holding an axe, creating riffs as if they were molding man from clay. As we know later on, Vrangsinn became a crucial part of every future Carpathian release, the new "Nordavind" so to speak. A. Kobro, the only member never to wear corpse paint is a fucking insane drummer, and as seen on "We're Going To Hollywood For This", being cross eyed at times seems to have no effect on this man's maniacal battery. The bass is very audible on here performed by Tchort who as of 2010(09?), left Carpathian Forest to join Blood Red Throne, no matter, his presence here is essential to the style Carpathian chose to play and literally flaggelates the listener's ear drums.

Nattefrost's vocals sound one hundred percent misanthropic and unnerving, trance-like in some spots lulling the listener in with a surprise ambush, also playing guitar on several tracks and no complaint because he tears shit up relentlessly, while Motorsen's tenor sax fits like a glove on "Cold Comfort" & "Nostalgia", very chilling and unsettling, and to my knowledge I believe that Carpathian Forest's one of the first black metal bands to feature the saxophone, way before Shining(Nor) even existed. If an album starts off with a badass opener than I'll usually include it in my review and so "Fever, Flames And Hell" starts off with a military drum roll and a spooky sounding synth arrangement and continues into a violent uprising with no guitar mind you, only bass, synth, and choir by Nattefrost and Nordavind. From there we arrive at "Doomed To Walk The Earth As Slaves Of The Living Dead" featuring Nina Hex previously heard on "Strange Old Brew", this starts off with a truly worthy head bangable riff and ignites into a black metal inferno presenting Christians with the ultimate question: "Can you move with those holy chains?". "Morbid Fascination Of Death" places you into a dead Fall atmospheric landscape, very descriptive in it's lyrics with a very memorable chorus, while "Through Self-Mutilation" is about exactly what it says and contains volatile tempo shifts.

"Knokkelmann" is track five, a "true death" song and if you've ever seen Carpathian Forest in concert, you would know that this tune is a live favorite and memorable with a chorus of "Solfalls ild...!". "Warlord Of Misanthropy" follows and for some reason every time I hear the opening riff, it reminds me of Metallica, lyrically it is about the fall of Satan and the burdens he had to uphold. "A World Of Bones" comes next and while being a decent song, to me there's nothing truly memorable about it, which opens for...dadada..."Carpathian Forest" remake from "Through Chasm, Caves And Titan Woods" which on this version has a faster tempo than the original, and does not have the same macabre atmosphere that the original had. "Cold Comfort" has to be my favorite song on "Morbid Fascination Of Death" with it's poetic spoken form and synth arrangement reminiscent of Carpathian's earlier work and along with Motorsen's saxophone performance, one of the most sinister sounding black metal songs of all time, reeking of decay and death, and I swear if you close your eyes you can smell the fumes of open graves, rotted mausoleums and cemetery mist. Closing track "Speechless" is solely performed by Nordavind, again following the ambient and spoken poetic form but causing way less impact than the former.

Lastly, we approach the two bonus tracks, "Ghoul" and "Nostalgia", honestly and of course Mayhem's original "Ghoul" is way better but this cover is a decent try and has a better production, but as almost anyone who is truly a fan of black metal knows, a clear production does not a better song make. "Nostalgia" has a terrifying atmosphere thanks to Natte's voice and Motorsen again molesting the sax, seriously, if that saxophone could talk, I'm sure it would feel violated and end up fetal crying in the shower. "The Nulun Sugus Choir" is also featured in this song and with every song on any album I like, I try to find something good in it even at the expense of being ridiculous. At the end of this very long track, we hear what appears to be a marching band and every single time I hear this, I am reminded of retarded Giovanni Ribisi in "The Other Sister" and his unhealthy obsession with marching band music to which I end up laughing so hard I cry and turn off "Morbid Fascination Of Death" with "Daniel!!!!" stuck in my slowly decaying brain. Enjoy this release and take it for what it is, black metal for those of us who love and hate the simple pleasures of this fucked up life which we are daily denied.

Believe it or not, this is one of my favorite Carpathian Forest albums. It delivers on such a primitive, yet effective level of misanthropy never before seen!

It is definitely one to pick up, here is why...

Carpathian Forest is a band of many sounds, their evolution is continuous and consistent but they don't abandon their priorities. This albums showcases that with pride.

The guitars on this album are very raspy, fast, and blistering - but also catchy, creative, and just very well handled (as Carpathian Forest should sound). The bass is heavy, sure, but not over-done. It sounds clean, and is effective to the production of the Black metal sounds of CF. That is, it only adds to the mysticism and aura of the band. The atmosphere of this album just proves it.

The drums are refreshing, as always. My point with the drums is that they don't sound like many other Black metal bands do. It's refreshing in the sense that it's a break from all of the blast beats, and all of the double bass you can handle. It relies more on creativity, and just relatively going along with the sound of the rest of the instruments. Kobro is a good drummer, not excellent, not great, just good.

The vocals are... Nattefrosty! The usual kick-ass Black metal vocals of Nattefrost come into play mainly to lay your soul to rest.

Overall Carpathian Forest's "Morbid Fascination of Death" album (in my opinion) is great, and is one of the finest hours of the band. If you are looking for an in-your-face message of abhorrence and depravity, pick this one up because you won't regret it. It will kick you in the gut and it WILL feel great!

Some tracks to watch out for (because they will kick your ass) are:

- "Doomed to Walk the Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead"
- "Through Self-Mutilation"
- "Knokkelmann"
- "Warlord of Misanthropy"
- "Carpathian Forest"
- "Ghoul" (Mayhem Cover)

Carpathian Forest is a band that has gone through several style changes, currently (although perhaps not finally) landing them into a rhythm based black metal band. No longer sounding like the raw and unrefined sound of Black Shining Leather Carpathian Forest favors a more structured, cleaner, and refined style of playing on Morbid Fascination of Death. While the band is able to bring out many grim and heavy blackened thrash/black metal riffs they can still give a song quite some intensity. Morbid Fascination of Death safely creates a style of black metal that can constantly remain enjoyable, but fails to reach a great moment on any of the songs.
Morbid Fascination of Death does have some different sounding songs on it, but the bulk of it is rhythm based black/thrash riffs that carry the song. Doomed To Walk the Earth As Slaves of the Living Dead has the simple, but good, blackened thrash riff set the pace of the whole song so that Nattefrost can deliver his lyrics. The vocals are delivered quite well, with Nattefrost really bring out a hateful tone that has a hint of Nihilism, that is his vocal tone sounds full of hate but with a lack of care to the listener. Which would reflect the signs the band has up while they play live like “FUCK YOU ALL!!”, which insinuates hatred and lack of any caring and interest in the listener. Otherwise the song doesn’t change all that much and just keeps pounding away with the crunching, fast, and thrash like black metal riff. The song Through Self Mutilation follows pretty much the same formula with some added hatred in the vocals as well as some riff changes to add diversity. It also has some tempo and speed changes that give the song some added intensity. Knokklmann also does the same with the tempo and speed changes but gets super fast at one point making the song much heavier, as well as making the riff crunchier.
The album changes a little bit towards the end with the songs Cold Comfort and Speechless (also Nostalgia but that is an old song off a demo just re-recorded), which reflect songs that were more like Carpathian Forest’s work off their demo’s like Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern. The songs are slow and atmospheric, with Nattefrost singing in a clam and harsh voice, sounding like he is on the verge of death. The songs have no heavy elements, just slow moving dirty guitars with an overpowering bass line which helps with the atmosphere of hopelessness, grimness, and nihilism. Those songs and the intro (which sounds like a war marching song) add some diversity to the album, the other songs on the album are the same though, just follow Doomed To Walk The Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead and repeat the style. This works since the style/structure of the song is enjoyable, with all good aspects like speed, heavy sounds, thrash style riffs, a blackened tone to the song and hate filled vocals.
Morbid Fascination makes its way as a good release in the catalog of CF’s albums. By no means as good as Black Shining Leather, but a bit better than Defending the Throne of Evil. It has all the good aspects of old school black metal (except the rawness) such as hatred, intensity, heavy riffs, thrash inspired black metal riffs, and energy. This album would have done better if it tried to give the formulaic rhythm based songs a chance to build up to something, like a high note. All they do is keep at the general same pace, only changing occasionally, and not getting much more intense than they start out as. Morbid Fascination of Death is better than a ton of other shitty black metal albums out there, but still has room for improvement. A good choice to get for a CF album after Black Shining Leather.

Carpathian Forest have evolved away from the seemingly endless number of "kvlt" bands and have become the foremost ass-kickers in the black metal world. While one may hate the churning bass, rock-heavy riffs and the like one must notice that Carpathian Forest have taken in the steaming heart of Venom and infused it with the clinical musicianship of the Scandanavian metal scene. Yep, wimps and posers leave the hall...because this mammoth-sounding slab of hell's rock and roll is coming through!

All of the tracks here are equally tasteless and tasteful in the same breath. Hammering riffs, double-bass drumming and typically spiteful drag these hellish rock-tunez through the dirt. Nattefrost and co. have crafted major riffage, nasty lyrics and all sorts of violence that few "atmospheric" wimp-bands could ever hope to convey. This may be more dangerous than anything on the market, as it rocks...and yet is still legit with the God-hating credos of any of the other black metal bands slithering around at the moment.

A lot of people have hated the changes in Carpathian Forest but I find them welcome in a day and age where basement black metal and pseudo-Nazism rule the day. Carpathian Forest can play, they can write and sure enough they can due Satan's lustful nature proper justice.

For all of those who want beefy, well-produced and still utterly filthy...this is for you.

BUY OR DIE!!!