Date: March 2021
Label: Art Gates Records
Five years after their last release, Catalonian Morphium launched their fourth full length, “The Fall”. Besides being the fourth album, “The Fall” is also their second written in English.
I must confess, when I see a mish-mash of genres and twelve songs, I am a bit scared. Always skeptical when it comes to crazy mixtures but always open and curious enough I give the chance to improve myself. At first, the song titles draw my attention. Song by song, I might admit, this music, which is really hard to put in one drawer. I hear NU metal, gothic metal, metal core… Does anyone even cares?
Overall, this is a very good album. It must be since it includes a few sub-genres (as already metioned). Aggressive but at the same time melodic enough, with seductive vocals, at some moments for some reason reminding me of Marylin Manson and even Ville Valo, colorful, well balanced fusion.
The first song “Dance of Flies” is very interesting piece, bone crusher intertwined with spooky kind of narrative parts and the most surprising melodic clean vocals. You got my attention guys! “The Truth” starts with, excuse me for ignorance, but me, an absolute amateur when it comes to this kind of music, call these jump moments. Again, melodic parts will draw my attention the most as well as good incorporated growl vocals. The next one, “Parasite” starts with what I already mentioned, Marilyn Mason style but very fast transforming to what I guess will follow us through the whole album, flirting of growl vocals, melodic parts and quality clean vocals. “Everybody is Dead in the House” shows that Catalan quintet is full of surprises even including some gothic elements. A bit of a dark atmosphere cannot hurt anyone. And am I crazy or I really can recognize Ville Valo’s influences on vocals here? “Burn My Skin” (ft. Māra Lisenko) will serve a great portion of obviously very talented and inspired group of musicians. “Insorcism” seals the deal, it is clear that Morphium is the band full of contrasts, balancing between aggression and melody.”Blacksoul” calms down a bit, more melody is involved. “My Apocalypse” continues at the same pace, so I can freely say the first part of the album is more energetic. After those two a bit slower songs, Morphium injects again and attacks with “Something Dead Inside”. “Past” is a bit born to be a part of some horror soundtrack, very short, spooky and effective instrumental. “Tired” delivers pure energy again; aggressive vocals are colliding with melodies and a groovy rhythm. Title track, “The Fall”, closes the album perfectly; again going in the realm of horror movies (it would perfectly fit in Saw franchise).
Overall, this album is full with contrasts and even if you are not a fan of a genre you will enjoy for sure. If you point a gun at my head, I would say my absolute favorites are the creepiest songs “Past” and “The Fall”. Highly recommended to directors of horror movies.
Speaking of Morphium’s visual presentation, I must remark that Alex Bace and Mike Casy and their teams who are responsible for band’s videos did a great job.
