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Morte Incandescente > Coffin Desecrators > Reviews
Morte Incandescente - Coffin Desecrators

Endearingly Old-School - 77%

ghastlylugosi, June 24th, 2008

From the metally-deficient country of Portugal comes the eerie practicioners Morte Incandescente; try this one out for a trip to the land of nostalgia. For some reason or another, this reminds me of the primitive early efforts of many noted German thrash titans, though this is not a thrash album. There is just something so unpolished and naive-sounding about this---as well as very apparent raw talent that may explode into brilliance in times to come.

One of the first things listeners will notice is the nigh-ludicrous drum sound, which upon repeated listens actually adds a positive element to the album! Remember over the years all the descriptions of drummers "pounding on wooden coffins", etc.? Well, THIS album truly sounds like that at times! The sound is not precisely "dull" or "muffled", but has an odd, dead flavour to it that at times detracts from the rest of the music. I don't imagine this is intentional, but it is very memorable!

The guitars and vocals are quite old-fashioned sounding...neither of top-notch musicianship, but with such music that is not a concern. The production lends itself to everything being audible; again, one gets a dead feeling from the album's sound, rather than muffled or anything else. It is NOT crisp or crunchy, that's for sure! But it serves the material well. There is a lot of echo effect on the vocals, but not so that they end up being mechanically overpowered. The vocalist's accent is pretty cool...his style is not the typical black metal shrieking, but more breathy rasping with a few tormented screams thrown in.

Musically, the material is often very interesting; I don't recall whether it is the third song or not, but it begins with an EXTREMELY dorky, happy-sounding riff that makes one wonder if the whole album is ruined. It is not! Morte Incandescente manage to transmogrify that dorky riff into a really cool song, and you'll wonder at how they did it. There are several such surprising arrangements/movements on this album.

I must mention that the cd cover/layout is fantastic...very bleak and sinister; perhaps one drawback of the album is that the music doesn't quite match the cool artwork! But that is a minor thing. All in all, this is a rather satisfying release (I'm unfamiliar with the band's other albums, so I can't compare), a unique, no-frills piece of black metal that is a refreshing change of pace from the usual Scandinavian-type onslaughts. Nothing prog, symphonic, or folksy...just some ancient-sounding material that could've been released around the same time as Bathory's early stuff (though sounding dissimilar).