This Swedish death metal band actually formed in 1990, split up in 1995 with some members playing in Blood Mortized from around 2007. Stroll onto 2010 and Malfeitor gets back together. Previous projects like Blood Mortized wanted to capture that sunlight studio sound, but I have to report that you should not expect a pure copycat of this sound from ‘Dum Morior Orior’. It is old school death, but of the more brutal kind, taking some riffing influences from the Florida sound (in the arrangements) and the cluster bomb approach of some Northern European bands. Yes, Rotten Death may feature mildly, but with the speed laden confusing arrangements, any groove or d-beat is lost in the overall mix. As I am listening to the CD, I realise I am now at track 3 and ‘When Last Breath Fades’, now that either means two things, it’s an album that is mastered well without breaks or its an album that doesn’t have an individual ounce of definition. Unfortunately, it is the latter; it all merges into one, but to be fair, you have greater definition for the remainder of the album as it plays through its arsenal of deafening heaviness.
I love the artwork, very colourful; at least it’s not another rotten black and white cover, that’s the only redeeming feature after my first listen of the release. Subsequent plays on various sound systems reveal different interpretations, but I still have a confusing issue with the drums. The patterns are random, you don’t get to any groove armada, you don’t feel any connection, sadly the songs follow this same path in rapid succession, but only on the double time, the real fast stuff. Finally…there is something tasty to bite into…’To Hell, Farewell’ has the rotten Swedeath sound and even has d-beat groove that is a vital requirement of this genre, I say vital as I am really getting bored with the wall of sound cataclysm that overbears most of the recordings.
Musically, you can hear what the band are trying to do, the sinful result of this album is the mix, it is too busy, you don’t get much distinguishable passages of brutality, all you get is very similar sound brutal bludgeoning. When the groove is present, like in ‘Death, The Dead and Me’ and ‘Rolling with the Corpses’ the album works, it is the double-time fast stuff that really doesn’t work for me, it’s simply undecipherable due to the vocals being too loud and overbearing, as are the drums (I reiterate again – only on the faster parts). Had ‘Dum Morior Orior’ been mixed a little beefier, it would work, you can have and engineer clarity with utter city flattening brutality on any release and it’s sadly a missed opportunity for this musically talented trio of individuals, because at a slower pace, it really works.
(5.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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