MORBID FLESH - Reborn in Death

MORBID FLESH - Reborn in Death (MEMENTO MORI - CD 2011)

Not a long ago I had a pleasure to review Morbid Flesh’s newest release titled “Embedded in the Ossuary”. But recently I was checking through some of my reviews and I found out that I haven’t reviewed their debut album yet, so here is a chance to catch up. And recommend you “Reborn In Death”, as it is truly a killer album. I sometimes even have troubles deciding which one I like more; the mentioned EP or this album, but both are so good that it is like choosing which of your kids you love more – so, something you just can’t decide. So, let’s just stick that both are killer death metal recordings and are a damn must to have for all traditional, old school death metal freaks out there. Yes! This CD was released by Memento Mori and along with the “Reborn In Death” album it contains also the demo “Dying Lapidation”, which is a welcome bonus material.

As I already mentioned, Morbid Flesh performs old school death metal and just like bands such as Undead Creep, Graveyard, Revel In Flesh, Brutally Deceased and so many more, they are just awesome at what they do. Stylistically they are surely close to the Swedish scene, but I would just say that “Reborn In Death” is a worship of European and US death metal in general, as there are as many influences from bands like Dismember, Grave or Nihilist as from Autopsy, old Morgoth, Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, early Death, Demigod,  and so on and on. You know the old cults, right? “Reborn In Death” is almost as good as some of these classic bands, really. Morbid Flesh has killer songwriting; some of these tracks and some of these riffs are just mind blowing and if you worship the old DM style and the old albums, then surely this is an awesome offer for you also. Not a single waste of time, no fillers are to be found on “Reborn In Death”. Such songs like the title track, “Into the Abyss” or “Impaled Ratzinger” (haha, what a crushing title!) would now be killer classics, if were recorded in the early 90’s, really. They just have everything; great, memorable riff, some awesome melodies, dark obscure atmosphere and great production. And you know… when people say that they don’t listen to these new bands, which play the traditional rough and morbid death metal, because they prefer the old bands and albums… I just don’t understand such stupid opinions. Sure, it’s not my problem, if someone is blind, deaf and stubborn. But what I want to say is that many of these new bands have so much to offer and quality wise they often match or even are better than some of these old bands... And Morbid Flesh is one of such bands for me.

I mentioned just a couple of songs, which are truly excellent, but there is more and I could really bring here the whole track list and each song on it would be awesome. Such “Walking With the Undead” for example goes for over nine minutes and is a brilliant summation of the entire album: drenched in blood and morbidity, crushing and aggressive as hell, but with quite few melodic parts and guitar leads. Damn, this is something  what I could listen to for the whole day. Dismember is no more? Who would care, if there are bands like Morbid Flesh?

And the demo material? Well, “Dying Lapidation” is maybe not quite as good as the album, but it is also a solid and worthy material and I am truly happy to find it on this CD also. There are four tracks plus Death cover and it is enough to say that they offer obscure, harsh, guts ripping death metal. I like that the demo has just two songs, which later ended up also on the full length album, so the other two are only to be found here… and that Death cover is also a nice addition, so… The demo has a good production quality, so there’s nothing I could complain about.

Standout tracks: “Into the Abyss”, “Impaled Ratzinger”, “Reborn in Death”, “Walking With the Undead”

Final rate: 85/100