Mordhell’s 2011 album Suffer in Hell left an impression on me thanks to its sleazy and punk tinged take on black metal, which stripped the genre down to its earliest incarnations but had the riffs and filth to back it up. The band would disappear for a bit after that, only providing a hint of new material with a split in 2014 until last year when they suddenly re-emerged on a four-way split with a new vocalist. This has led up to the Polish group’s third full length, the appropriately titled Graveyard Fuck, which keeps the chunky riffing and slimy nature that made them so appealing before. It may not be deviating significantly from what the band’s offered since their inception, but the quality of the writing more than makes up for it and this is one of the better stripped-down black metal albums you’ll come across this year.
Similar to long-running Norwegian acts like Tulus and Svarttjern who entered this decade with a simplified yet catchy sound that pulled in as much rock ‘n roll attitude as it did jagged and abrasive riffing, Mordhell has gone for a similar approach where the songs bludgeon and make you want to bang your head in equal capacity. It falls somewhere in between first and second wave black metal though there’s a significant amount of grime and decay added into the overall sound, to the point that you may just feel like you need a shower after you’ve finished listening. This approach is evident right from the start, as rather than starting off with an ominous intro the band launches right into chunkier riffing that lumbers forth like the undead. There’s equal amounts of straight-up black metal and black ‘n roll/punk, with the latter really being amped up on songs like “Fed to Pigs” and “Rotten Cunt Adoration”. But even though there’s a noticeably abrasive and violent tone to the instrumentation, Mordhell does shake things up at times and some creepy synth melodies worm their way into some of the material. It’s a subtle detail, but the occasional shift over into haunting melodies alongside the sleaze and violence does make the songs easier to differentiate than is typical for this type of black metal and it gives listeners plenty to come back to.
As mentioned earlier, this full-length introduces new vocalist Grimmessiah, who first appeared on a split release last year. With the type of sound the band is going for throughout Graveyard Fuck you’d expect the vocals to be over the top, and the performance certainly doesn’t disappoint as the screams are so raspy and distorted that they feel like they’re spreading barbed wire across your skin. Rather than sticking with this much higher pitch for the entire album, there are backing vocals that adopt an extremely low and hellish growl which really fills out the bottom end of the sounds and only adds to the aggressive nature of the material. Plus, you’ve got the insane vocal ranges and sexual pleasure sounds that round out the closing track “Morbid Orgy” which channel the same type of madness as Finland’s Archgoat which proves to be quite appealing.
Nearly nine years after their last album, Mordhell has returned with a more than worthy follow-up. While it sticks with a tried and true approach of punk and rock’n roll tinged black metal that hits hard and is soaked in grime, the riffs stand out more than you might initially expect and make this a downright fun and violent album that will warrant repeat listens from many. It’s stronger than some of the other second-wave black metal artists that have gone back to this stripped-down approach, and hopefully the next time we hear from this band won’t be in almost another decade. Graveyard Fuck is available from Pagan Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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