Tad Morose - Modus Vivendi

*=Staff's pick	Anubis* No Mercy* Afraid To Die Clearly Insane* Cyberdome* Take On The World Mother Shipton's Words* Unwelcome Guest Life In A Lonely Grave* When The Spirit Rules The World*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Urban Breed	Vocals
Tracks	10	Christer Andersson	Guitar
Runningtime	47 Min.	Daniel Olsson	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Anders Modd	Bass
Release	17 Nov. 2003	Peter Morén	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Black Sabbath, Avalon, Primal Fear, Brainstorm

Tad Morose have been fighting the good fight for over a decade now but still haven't got that serious recognition they truly deserve yet. But hopefully that can change with the release of their eight studio album since the beginning in the early 90:s. The development this band has experienced since then is a piece of metal history in itself and with Modus Vivendi another chapter is written in those chronicles. I've been a huge fan of Tad Morose from the very beginning and it's been a pleasure to follow their impressive improvement. This is definitely one of the bands that really should earn way more praise than they have so far and perhaps Modus Vivendi finally will take them there, 'cause it's definitely got potential enough and not even their previous killers Undead and Matters of the Dark can match it.

This new album continues pretty much where Matters of the Dark left us, but the focus has slightly shifted towards a heavier, more grinding and somewhat gloomier approach. As usual the band provides a great metal mix consisting of powerful mid tempo tracks of both faster and more slow grinding character and of course also ones where the accelarator seriously hits the floor. Seen throughout this band's career so far, Black Sabbath must be regarded as the brightest shining guide light sound wise, but over the years and especially since the arrival of Breed other influences have also begun to play a larger role. German band constellations like especially Avalon, Brainstorm and Primal Fear have transfered their sound to that of Tad Morose's and some very clear traces of US inspired heavy metal have been adapted as well. To simplify you could say that the slower mid tempo tunes bare the clearest Black Sabbath influences, the faster ones of that sort run in the veins of Primal Fear, Avalon and US metal while the speedier tracks are where especially Brainstorm makes the clearest impacts. In other words, no happy stuff going on, but a very direct, straightforward and powerful metal that every Tad Morose follower easily can associate with. And although I've compared the band to those other comrades in arms, Tad Morose clearly have a sound that's completely their own which also differs very much from the general Swedish metal acts.

On Modus Vivendi there are elements that can be traced all the way back to the early albums Leaving the Past Behind and Sender of Thoughts but have been adapted to the Tad Morose sound of today. That's particulary true with the main riff in Unwelcome Guests but those of you familiar with the significant band concept can find this on more than that one occasion. Urban Breed's performance is as usual amazingly great and here we're up against a vocalist that I rank very high among all the other metal vocalists out there. Along with Daniel Heiman (Lost Horison) and Jonny Lindkvist (Nocturnal Rites) he’s absolutely the best Swedish metal vocalist at present time. He totally rules the entire scale- from high to low, from clear to aggressive, from soaring to harsch. Very impressive! Equally imposing are other installments like the heavy, instigating and sometimes gloomy twin guitar riffing and the maturity and high quality of the song writing. The tracks are very powerful no matter what pace they're driven by and although it overall feels very simple, it's performed in a terrific way. Verses, bridges, refrains, riffing, interludes, solos- everything really works from start to finish.

All tracks are great but I especially prefer the faster mid tempo ones like for instance Anubis with its gloomy mood, the US metal inspired No Mercy and the album closer When the Spirit Rules the World. Other ones that also make a profound impression are the speedy Clearly Insane and the epic Life in a Lonely Grave. I could go on like this and mention every track individually but that's just a long line of boring repeats so I leave it with that. It's enough to know that fillers is a totally unknow issue on Modus Vivendi. Regarding the production, the band has been in charge of their own work but the nowadays icon in Swedish recording contexts, Fredrik Nordström, controlled the mixing in Studio Fredman with formidable results. The sound is simply amazing and also goes down as the best one ever in the band history book.

Tad Morose have during the latest years and with the albums Undead and Matters of the Dark gone from strength to strength and with Modus Vivendi the whole deal escalades even more. The album is a true metal pearl and I sincerely hope that Tad Morose finally will reach metal superstar status and start taking the world by storm! The loyal Morose fans can absolutely buy Modus Vivendi completely unheard and there's enough great material here to satisfy even the most fastidious metal listener.
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