Mortualia – Blood of the Hermit (2014)

Unleashing one of the most barbaric Black Metal releases to date, Moribund Records unearths Mortualia’s sophomore release “Blood of the Hermit”. Featuring around 60 minutes of nihilistic raw music, this release will crush your soul and you will be begging for more. Shatraug is the true raw Black Metal master and with this release he shows how melancholic rawness can affect your psyche.

Opening with the bestial “Becoming Meaningless”, Shatraug unleashes pure evil with a doomy/atmospheric induced coma filled with punishing guitars and inhuman screams. Lasting 12 minutes, this song is a brilliant exercise in expertly crafted melodic riffs that suddenly turn sour with the harsh screams. With a more typical structure, “Manic Euphoria” keeps the tempo slow but the dissonance to its highest for 10 minutes of pure hatred.

As “The Sinister Shine” and “Blood of the Hermit” continue to punish the listeners, we are left wondering how is such a primitive and raw form of BM as effective as in this release, and the obvious answer is Shatraug’s unlimited creativity and talent. With no pretty production values or studio magic, “Pain at least…” delivers a nail to this coffin with raw force and majestic melodic sections that work wonders with the bleak and raw desolate atmosphere created in this release.

Mortualia is truly a devastating force and this release shows that this one man behemoth is unstoppable. Fast forward several years since this originally came out and you can hear that this release is still very relevant and sounds like it was recorded last month in terms of musical appeal and state of the genre. If you like true desolation and rawness in your Black Metal, but are not expecting something hyper fast, this is one album you do not want to miss.

Label: Moribund Records

Release: June 23rd, 2014

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Finland