Thou Art Lord: The Regal Pulse of Lucifer (2013)

To date, this is the last full-length album released by Thou Art Lord.  And thus it is also the last post in my series here on the band.  One thing I have learned from going over the major releases from Thou Art Lord is that no successive albums sound the same.  And that continues to be the case with this last release.

For the most part this release is similar to the last album and their first album.  That is to say that is a thrashier version of Hellenic black metal.  Particularly on the first couple of songs, "Nine Steps to Hell" and "Πολιτεία δαιμόνων".  The latter track is a full-throttle, pounding tour de force.  The typical Hellenic black metal riffing style is ever-present as always.  I do have to mention the use of the Game of Thrones theme in "Fire and Blood".  At first I was not quite sure I was really hearing it and listened over again.  Sure enough, the band is actually using the opening credits theme to Game of Thrones.

There are some stark differences between this album and the previous one though.  First of all, the keyboard flourishes return on this release, so it is not nearly as stripped-down and organic.  Secondly, the band utilizes some spoken word sections and samples to help tell a greater story, almost certainly about the power of Satan.  But rather than being distracting, these elements serve to accentuate the songs, causing them to stand out more than some of the band's previous releases.  And what results is quite possibly the band's strongest release.

This is probably Thou Art Lord's best album.  The band is no longer a Rotting Christ clone and have forged their own path.  It is a shame that the band has not released anything since this album.  I guess maybe they saved their best for last.

Morbosidad: Corona de Epidemia (2017)

Despite being from the U.S., all of Morbosidad's album titles, song titles and lyrics are in Spanish.  It is kind of an interesting choice.  I don't fault them for it, but it is somewhat unusual for a black metal band in the U.S. to be playing entirely in Spanish.  Especially since this is pretty much straight black metal with few, if any, other influences.

An initial note.  This band almost has Spinal Tap-esque luck with drummers.  For those who have not seen the movie (shame on you), Spinal Tap's drummers tend to die in strange and mysterious ways, several due to episodes of spontaneous human combustion.  Morbosidad's first drummer Yegros died in an explosion in the band's rehearsal room.  Another drummer Goat Destroyer died falling out of a third story window.  No clue.

Morbosidad is clearly influenced by the early progenitors of the genre, with Blasphemy being a particularly strong reference point.  There is nothing pretty going on in this album.  It is simply raw and hateful black metal that is harsh and violent and over quickly.  There are 11 songs on the album, but it lasts under 33 minutes.  There is no time for melodic interludes or clean singing.  Each song makes the maximum amount of destructive noise possible.

The production is better than a lot of Morbosidad's previous material, but it still leaves something to be desired.  The guitars are a little low in the mix, meaning that the drums are the loudest instrument.  The vocals are in right about the correct place, not too high and not too low.  That is certainly not unusual for this style of metal.  After all, Blasphemy was always pretty much the same way, to the point that they took pride in their low production values.  Morbosidad is not nearly that bad, at least on this release.

This is just pure, hateful black metal.  There are those out there that love that kind of thing and this is definitely the kind of album they would like.  Luckily, I happen to be one of them.