MasseMord - Let the World Burn

MasseMord - Let the World Burn (Death Solution Productions - CD 2007)

After two great demos, MasseMord became one of my favourite Polish black metal bands and at the time after the release of their second demo "Hatred Towards Mankind and Life Itself" I only waited for them to crown themselves on the black metal throne with two other bands: Kriegsmaschine and Thunderbolt as our country's great unholy trinity. And when "Let the World Burn" was released, it didn't disappoint and managed to convince me 100%. This was and still is one hell of a great album and I can only be proud for the fact they're Polish and I have been able to watch their evolution already through several materials.

Somehow I expected that MasseMord will choose the path of mechanical, experimental black metal playing in the vein of Thorns and Dodheimsgard on their first album. Of course I've just been fooled by the cover of the latter that appeared on the previous demo, but it was also the atmosphere of "Hatred Towards Mankind and Life Itself" that made me think that... Anyway, there surely is quite a deep shadow of the Norwegian black metal over "Let the World Burn". And yes, if I would compare MasseMord to any Norwegian band, it's going to be Dodheimsgard from their amazing "Satanic Art" EP. But MasseMord has only slightly similar style of riffing, without going into lunatic, schizophrenically mad ideas or the industrialised additions. Plus there are some hints of Keep of Kalessin's "Reclaim" MLP to make the music even more furious and ravaging. I guess it would be pretty fair to resume “Let the World Burn” as a conglomeration of classic black metal with modern feeling, which is still pretty unique and impressive.

Definitely one of the things that will hit you first, is the intensity of this music. Almost the entirety of it has been played at amazing, neckbreaking speed and it sounds almost like someone unleashed furious hordes and couldn't stop them now ("Dance of Red Nails" especially). Surprisingly many of the riffs have a strong melodic background and it sounds great in my opinion, when you have an epic feeling and melody, but played in such an angry and fast way. In addition to the bands I’ve mentioned earlier, some parts of “Let the World Burn” remind me also Anaal Nathrakh, with similar feeling and ferocity - listen to "Man's Death In My Eyes" for instance. But MasseMord controls all that madness and menace, managing to incorporate few varied parts and thus avoids the boredom and monotony. Those merciless songs at neckbreaking speed have great arrangements, but when MasseMord slows the tempo down into the midpaced playing, it doesn’t affect the quality of music, which is great and interesting all the time. Listen to "Glimmer of Despair", for instance, which begins with kind of melancholic guitar and slow drumming, almost in the Burzum-esque vein – it sounds great and maybe even too quickly it turns into the relentless chaos of drum's cannonade again... I would probably prefer this song to stay slow and with the overwhelming gloomy atmosphere that the band created at the beginning, but even in the current form I can sincerely admit that "Glimmer Of Despair" (together with "Man's Death In My Eyes") belongs to my favourite song on the album! "Uwierzyć" has rather mediocre beginning and just when I thought it will end up as a less interesting song, the mid part of it brought some great sorrowful acoustics (the atmosphere is completed by the sounds from some pornos!) and the band again proved to have many interesting ideas.

Finally I must also underline my enthusiasm for Namtar's vocals, which are very expressive and don't lack any bit of the necessary aggression. Even with the Polish written lyrics in two songs Namtar showed his great abilities. Also I really like the lyrics, with their very negative message, which can be resumed with the words "Your life is an absurd. I wish you suffering then!". Their content could be controversial and not everyone will take it seriously, but at least they're really well written and definitely belong to the most interesting for me in the whole genre. Well, just read the words like "Slime is merging into stench of you, a larvae has grown to become your heart. The end is so near the end I will make, your future so close future I will destroy...".

Add to all of this a spotless production, very clear, but powerful and one which still fits the canons of traditional black metal – the result is excellent, brutal and filled with the rotten energy. I guess it is enough to admit that “Let the World Burn” is not your average black metal album, but one, which is in the league of its own. Not many will be able to reach it.

Standout tracks: "Glimmer Of Despair", "Man's Death In My Eyes"
Final rate: 95 / 100