Morgoth - Ungod

Published April 09 2015

*=Staff's pick	House Of Blood Voice Of Slumber* Snakestate* Black Enemy Descent Into Hell Ungod* Nemesis God Is Evil Traitor Prison In Flesh The Dark Sleep

Genre	Death Metal	Karsten Jäger	Vocals
Tracks	10	Harald Busse	Guitar
Running time	40 Min.	Sebastian Swart	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Sotirios Kelekidis	Bass
Release	March 30, 2015	Marc Reign	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Producer	Jörn Michutta, Matthias Klinkmann
Similar artists	Asphyx

German death metal, now that's something you don't hear of every day! Although this is my first encounter with them, Morgoth have actually been around since 1987 and from what I've read, their 1991 debut album Cursed was an old-school death metal piece which two years later was followed up by Odium, an industrial-prog-death metal album. They strayed even further with 1996's industrial rock album Feel Sorry For The Fanatic and now they release Ungod, their first album in 19 years.

Their musical path have been anything but straight and while they seem to have found a more clear death metal direction in Ungod, I can still perceive a conflict of identity in the music. On the one hand, the sound and the vocals seem highly influenced by the Dutch death metal scene - Asphyx in particular.

On the other hand, the title track sounds like a tribute to the Stockholm death metal scene and I hear a lot of passages that remind me of the American scene, especially Immolation. Additionally, as I suggested earlier, there are some slightly progressive touches as well as rather melodic parts suggesting At the Gates as a big influence.

In other words, there's a little bit of everything here but identity crises aside, Ungod is a decent album with its ups and downs. I enjoy a lot of the riffs and melodiesand there are some really good songs, such as Voice of Slumber, Snakestake and the instrumental title track, but there are other songs that fall short and strike me as somewhat unmemorable and/or repetitive.

The production is okay but a little bit on the weak side, especially when it comes to the drums. In my opinion, if you try to sound like Asphyx then don't pull any punches - create a listening experience equivalent to being assaulted by a division of tanks. Personally I miss something unique to really make the album stand out on its own.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	4	5	6	6

Summary
5,5 chalices of 10 - Blidmark