Morvigor - Tyrant,
After waiting for over three years, the guys have produced their second full length album ‘Tyrant’. Morvigor has gone through a massive change. The band has changed their logo and style of music. The logo has been changed to a more black metal style logo rather than a folk metal logo which they used to rock. The music has been taken to another more professional level which has been done great.
If you’ve listened to their previous record ‘A Tale Of Suffering’ you will be surprised how professional ‘Tyrant’ sounds. The more black metal approach has done Morvigor certainly good. The new drummer Brendan is certainly one of the reasons why Morvigor sounds more like a band than before. The drums are such a solid addition prior their last release ‘A Tale Of Suffering’. The death metal element hasn’t been lost in the process of making new music. Luckily Morvigor already knew what they were doing on their first record but the death metal element has been taken to another higher level.
It does however takes some big balls to record a 10-minute track. You shouldn’t let it become boring or let the song become monotone. The guys have done a stellar job in not doing that. But shortly after the almost 10-minute track, the take on a 15:41-minute track with takes even more balls to do so. ‘Blood Of The Pelican’ is the name of that beast. What i absolutely love about the production of ‘Tyrant’, is that the bass actually can be heard in the mix. This is vital in my opinion because with a 15:41-minute track you must not get bored and you can actually listen to each and every instrument on its own.
What is a pleasant surprise, is that the vocalist Jesse has been improving his vocals more and more. His vocals really fit the style of music that Morvigor is producing right now on ‘Tyrant’. The band doesn’t do the abrupt changes they did on ‘A Tale Of Suffering’ instead of that, they try and succeed in doing smooth transitions throughout the whole album. Even the ‘sudden’ bass solo’s by Evio are fitting perfectly during the song ‘Blood Of The Pelican’ and ‘The Martyr’s Ascension’.
For me, this album is a big step to being one of the more known melodic black metal bands of the coming 10 years. If they release an EP or a demo in the upcoming year, they will have more consistency instead of 3 years waiting for a new cd from Morvigor. Lets round this review up and say that the production value of Morvigor has massively improved prior to their first release and that they need to keep this style of music. I know that these guys can produce a good cd and this has proven it that they know what they are doing and they love that they are making this music. A great release but don’t let people wait for too long for the next release. 8.5 out of 10.
Review done by Bonno Zwaan | Dutch Brutal/Death/Metal/Thrash NL
