This album is about loss. Memories, the struggle and maybe the recovery. “Mor” is the second album from the self-proclaimed doom punk band from Germany.
It certainly does seem as if John Lydon has joined a heavy metal band. “Watershed”, the first of ten concise pieces, has a deep groove and a thrashy melody but with variations in tempo. “Halfway Vanished”, which follows, slows down midway through and it is as if we’re inside someone’s tortured mind. The deep groove returns for “Nebula”. A sinister guitar line runs though it, and stands in parallel to heavy crunching instrumental work. “The Facts” starts like a threat is being issued. The tension builds up. The vocalist is agonised as ever. On the instrumental side, it’s a dark march. The vocalist’s pain is matched once by more deep sounds, but this isn’t a one-sided affair, as the deep and heavy rhythm is interspersed momentarily with a delicate guitar touch before taking us away and back into dark and dingy territory. After an enticing start, the title song erupts into darkness and vocal despair. With it, and with every song, there is not only atmosphere but also heavy melody. There’d always been a hint of punk but “Flay” starts in pure fashion before slowing down and dragging us weightily through the mill. “RIP” is just sheer heaviness and expenditure of energy, of which there is a lot on this album. It is a funereal driving force. By contrast the final song “Retribution”, which was composed by a different band member from the others, has a different ambience. The riff and the despairing vocals are as pungent as ever. Crunch goes the guitar one final time before playing out quietly.
It’s the nature of punkish songs to be short, I suppose, but Kavrila pack a lot of dark creativity and intensity into this 28-minute work. “Mor” is raw, but the musicianship is tight and the structures impressive. This is definitely a band I could listen to again.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
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