Morgana Lefay

This here is a filler album, that was made to fulfil a record contract. Two original members left, to go under the name Lefay, before this album was started. What a messy situation it must have been...

So, while this was done under the old name, it doesn't sound similar to old material, but only partly. While Morgana Lefay performed epic heavy metal between 1989-1996, here they sound like a mixture between their old bustle and North American alternative and groove metal stuff. This "book" could be judged by its cover. Looking at the cover where a shot is fired from a handgun, and comparing it to the early albums, as well as reading the song titles.

ML knew how to deliver heavy-sounding material earlier, and they still do it here. Riffing can be very hefty, crunchy and rather dark indeed, and there's a lot of string-twisting to be heard. Alternative metal style tremolo guitars, both riffs and leads, play a huge role. That bit sounds like Pantera, that one like Rob Zombie, and some Prong is heard there... Not bad influences, and combining these elements of old and new can sometimes sound functional here. Guitar solos also vary between melodic, traditional metal ones and noise. The drum delivery is forceful yet it sounds like a machine playing them. While there's old school Morgana Lefay here, the basis now lays on groove metal. And to tell the truth, if there was none of that ML of yore here, this would sound quite a dull record! Prince cover 'Darling Nikki' works well in this environment. Synthesizer was utilized to spice up the things a bit. Yeah, only a bit.

The vocals are raspy and semi-melodic, but not very angry (the music itself isn't very angry, actually). They remind me of not so rabid Alexi Laiho (Children Of Bodom), and even those "ya-ya-yaaa" screams are in. Sometimes the vocals have more Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) approach, and on the other hand, more bluesy stoner vibe. It sounds like a big part of the vocals were put through some effect box. There are just a few cleanly sung lines. Maybe the lyrics didn't have enough quality, so they aren't printed. Just guessing that by reading those imaginative song titles such as 'Pain', 'Rage' and 'Hate'.

The weakest trait of the album is its production job, which simply sounds garbled. Sometimes it gets clogged, thanks to too many effected instruments and vocals. Most of the elements are just mixed to front, eating each other's space. Some stuff simply sounds like it's badly shadowed, maybe even forgotten under everything else. So, the balancing didn't happen while mixing the album. The album ended up sounding like a demo, such raw is it. Yeah, it might sound heavy, but it's heavy in the wrong way now. Somebody forgot to give it some plunger...

The opener is partly like old Morgana Lefay, but after that the band moves deeper into groove/alternative metal territory. As mentioned earlier, this "book" can be read by its cover. But at some points the music does work surprisingly well. It's just bollocks that the style is so different when compared to the original one, because now it's bypassed by the band's fans as well as by the ML members themselves, and I wonder how many likely listeners found this interesting mixture of genres...

PS. Lefay released three albums and after those, Morgana Lefay was reformed in 2004. So, there's more epic, dark heavy metal for you all!

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

Morgana Lefay has been around since the 80’s playing thrashy power metal and has garnered much respect in the metal community as being a solid force with balls. It takes much to be a widely accepted band from all around and while I agree that they deserve the respect and attention they deserve, their 6th full length and self-titled release is somewhat of a dull one. There are plenty of great moments warranting headbanging, throwing the horns or singing along but there are also plenty of dull filler tracks and boring riffs.

The guitarists here are acceptable playing fast and melodic riffs overlapping with melodic and awesome powerful solos. Being the biggest highlight of the album with crushing and power driven riffs akin to something of a mix of traditional heavy metal and old school power metal. I wouldn’t have been surprised of this band hailing from United States or England and not Sweden, but after knowing this it makes sense with certain elements from the typical Swedish power metal scene particularly with the vocals. It seems like he’s singing through a synth at times that makes it sound terrible or fake. Being the biggest let down of the album the singer has a gruff and strained voice at times with no range and little emotion it seems. When singing normal he can have some great moments reminding me of gruffer singers like Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger but doesn’t exactly fit the style of the traditional/heavy style this album presents. Often reminding me of bands like Godiva possibly, Morgana Lefay might fit well with a singer hitting earsplitting falsettos and such. Everything else here is nothing special and doesn’t stray from the norm, with the bass following guitar patterns and the drums having no particular notice.

Morgana Lefay’s self-titled release seems to be a more traditional or hard rock album instead of being a full-fledged power metal release. This being my first introduction to the band I cannot compare it to the rest of their work which I take to be actual power metal with thrash influences as their description says. Songs like Crash and Burn and Hate have riffs that remind me of traditional power metal while memorable ones from Save Me aren’t nearly power metal by many standards so it’s hard to say there are thrash influences here because I find none. Riffs seem to be the best thing going for Morgana Lefay here with the guitarists doing good jobs creating some memorable headbangers like Loaded Gun and creating some blazing solos.

So while this isn’t complete cannon fodder, this is a weak and dull release that I’m sure is not Morgana Lefay’s highlight. There are entertaining guitar riffs and leads that make for a worthy release at times but too many fillers and uninspired songs inhabit this album that are utter skip worthy with nothing memorable about them like Kiss of Death. If only every song on here was as good as Loaded Gun, then this would be quite the rocker because that is one badass song. I wouldn’t recommend this as an introductory album like it was for me because it’s a downer, fortunately though I will continue in search for that “power metal with thrash influences” that I love.