Galloping guitars galore! If you’re a fan of Mors Principium Est (and alliteration), get those sweet buns in here and check out their new album. It’s exactly what you expect, but in some cases, like with pizza, that’s not a bad thing.
If you didn’t know, Mors Principium Est deal in death. Melodic death, to be precise. This is their seventh album and is appropriately titled… Seven. It comes out of the corner swinging like any good boxer (I suppose as I know nothing about boxing). There’s a short symphonic intro to the first track, “A Day for Redemption,” then you’re hit with those galloping melodic death riffs. I could probably end the review right here…
BUT I WON’T!
Track 3, “In Frozen Fields” is exactly for what you are looking in a melodic death metal track. It’s mostly mid-paced, but the weeping guitar melody which weaves its way through the chorus compliments the vocals, or the other way around, perfectly. It’s the best chorus so far, too. I’m not sure why, but I get a little bit of an Insomnium vibe. Maybe it’s the vocals or the content of them.
If there’s anything that differentiates Mors Principium Est from the rest of the melodic death metal pack, it’s this. While they certainly don’t jump fully into the death doom pool, they definitely dip their toe in once in a while. Maybe they should jump in. Call it death doom bathing suit weather. Don’t picture it.
Buttoning it up nicely at the end is the closer “My Heart My Grave.” I could have used a comma there, but that’s fine, guys… Anyway, it has a suitable piano intro and outro bookending the grooving, melodic death metal monster in between.
So, in conclusion, and to steal a phrase from a fellow writer, does the world need more Mors Principium Est.? In short, the answer is “yes.” Does Seven reinvent the wheel? Of course not, but for those of you who like melodic death metal, you weren’t looking for, nor expecting such a proposition anyway. In this bag full of soggy dicks, year of our dark lord 2020, it’s nice to have some consistency, especially something as consistently bad ass like Seven in your rotation.
