After a successful eight year run in the 90s that saw them release four albums, Milwaukee’s Morta Skuld put their stamp on US death metal and then proceeded to call it quits. But like so many groups from death metal’s earlier days Morta Skuld would resurface in 2012, with founding member Dave Gregor putting together a new lineup and releasing the Serving Two Masters EP in 2014 and Wounds Deeper Than Time full-length in 2017. Three years later the reformed version of the band is going strong and have returned with their latest album Suffer for Nothing, continues the type of brutal and bottom-heavy sound that one would expect from death metal while offering even more hooks than before.
Opener “Extreme Tolerance” should give you a pretty good idea of exactly what Morta Skuld has to offer throughout Suffer for Nothing, as it comes roaring out of the gate with faster blasting and mid-tempo grooves that have so much weight and power to them that it feels like they’ll send your speakers crashing right through the floor. You’ve even got a lumbering bass line that sounds like a corpse lurching forward around the halfway point, which is sure to bring a smile to any old-school death metal fan’s face. From there the band continues on this same track, moving between these slower grooves that are drenched in filth and grime as well as blasting listeners into oblivion at a breakneck pace. It’s certainly a straightforward approach and reminds me of Obituary and Deicide in equal capacity, but as plenty of groups have showed in recent years when this style is delivered with standout riffs and the right level of intensity it can still stand out and that’s exactly what Morta Skuld has done. At forty-one minutes in length Suffer for Nothing feels like just the right length, with each song putting a slightly different spin on the formula and offering a lead or solo that grabs your attention without dragging things out to the point of repetition. Even the almost six-minute closer “Machines of Hate” justifies its length with the injection of some creepier melodies and crunchy grooves that work to the band’s advantage. It’s evident that this version of the group runs like a well-oiled machine that bludgeons with precision and avoids falling into too predictable of a pattern, giving this material plenty of replay value for those that can’t get enough of the brutality of old-school death metal.
While Dave Gregor has been the one consistent member of Morta Skuld throughout their history, it’s interesting to see how his vocal approach has changed from the band’s earlier days. His performance on albums like Dying Remains were drenched in distortion and had a murkier quality to them, while in recent years they’ve become a bit more direct and are delivered in shorter bursts. With how Gregor enunciates it’s far easier to make out the lyrics than is typical for this type of death metal, and that’s likely to result in a lot of passages getting stuck in your head. It helps that the vocals are right at the front of the mix and are one of the most prominent elements, and while the growls might not be as inhuman sounding and murky as before they still come through with an immense amount of power. I can appreciate the shorter bursts, as it helps to break up the vocals a bit more and makes them feel like a punch to the chest with each verse.
Morta Skuld has returned with another standout album that recaptures the brutality and precision of their earlier days while having hooks that set them above the average genre acts. While you won’t get any ideas that radically reinvent what was happening in death metal in the mid-90s, when it’s delivered with this much catchiness and makes you want to head bang from beginning to end that’s more than enough to make this a genre highlight for 2020. The new Necrot may still be my favorite death metal effort of the year so far, but Morta Skuld’s latest isn’t far behind it and it’s an album more people should be talking about. Suffer for Nothing is available from Peaceville Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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