Morbid Sacrifice
Severed Death
5
When your claim to fame consists of two separate shows when you were supposed to be the supporting act for Hatebreed and Madball except they canceled, it wouldn’t hurt to say your career didn’t have many highpoints. I’m not making any judgements or anything, I only mention this because I think it helps to elucidate the rather obscure musical condition of Morbid Sacrifice, a central Pennsylvania death metal band that has been disbanned since 2002, but has just now released their debut album.
Also, if I’m not severely mistaken, Morbid Sacrifice appears to be a Christian death metal band, and I only mention this because it’s a slight point of interest. Not that it really matters in the long run of anything over lyrical concepts, but I seriously hope no one is out there listening to death metal for the bitchin' lyrics.
Well, now to the music…well…here in lies the problem with Morbid Sacrifice. I knew they touted themselves as old school death metal, but I didn’t necessarily think that’d mean they’d be playing an insipid, retrograde version of death metal that dwelled over conventional and safe territory without one riff that really attempts to break its genre's confines or expand their style in any meaningful way. The foundational style displayed on Severed Death is nothing more than just another Cannibal Corpse clone with these strange, out of place galloping trad/power metal sections and hackneyed leads that grate against the rest of the material. Maybe this was fresh seven years ago when they formed as a band, but now it’s just flat out uninspired and uninteresting.
Normally, this is where I’d go on a long rant about how truly terrible the band is, but for whatever reason I get the impression it’s not really the case that these guys suck. The main problem is that the compositional strength and overall delivery is overtly amateurish. The production isn’t horrible, but neither is it great. It finds itself somewhere seated between bad and tolerable, it’s not exactly unlistenable, but neither is it something you particularly appreciate. Each musician’s contribution is clear and audible and well placed in the mix, but the sound itself is aggravatingly sloppy and unconvincingly executed. I’m sure these guys could handle a stage well, but their studio product seems lifeless and manufactured.
What I’m supposed to be doing here: not getting on a high horse ranting about what true metal is and how unsophisticated and ignorant those of you who don’t share my opinion are. Nor do I really feel I’m supposed to be making a judgmental opinion of how good of art it is, I’m supposed to be relating to you whether or not you should get excited about an album’s release, and unless you’re already a fan of the band I really see no selling points for Morbid Sacrifice unless you just absolutely need another c-grade death metal band to add to your musical repertoire.
