Year: 2021
Total Time: 49:09
Label: Art Gates
I’ll be honest. I was not aware of MORPHIUM, until the moment I was asked to do this review, despite being a fan of the music style they play and the music scene they represent. Therefore, on the occasion of the release of “The Fall”, I thought it would be a good idea to also dive into the rest of their albums, in their fifteen years (well how the hell did I miss them?) of existence.
So, this is the fourth album of the Spaniards, who use Groove Metal as the basis of their sound, enriching it with several elements of melodic Death Metal, a little touch of Electro/Goth, up to modern Rock references. Despite the diversity and any relative reasonable assumption that MORPHIUM might not be settled musically, I have to note that on the contrary they know very well where they stand and both from their ideas and their imprint, they seem to be very good players.
The band has improved significantly their overall performance compared to the previous albums, and this is largely due to the addition of new members, specifically Javi and Lamb James on guitars. What we have here is a very interesting composition of beatdown and melodic themes, with the talented Alex Bace’s voice as the main axis. This is done quite consciously and makes some of their tracks (my favourite “Burn My Skin” and “My Apocalypse” being a striking example) more “digestible” (in a good sense), raising the level of their release as a whole.
12 tracks, short to medium duration of each one, simple and commercial structures in most of them, with references to bands like SEVENDUST, DISTURBED, KORN. Overplayed style? Sure. Can it stand out from the pile of similar groups? In such a saturated genre of music, MORPHIUM have a specific difference that could possibly, under the right conditions, be turned into an advantage. They have an overwhelmingly greater musical range than many of these bands, they don’t “soften” their aggressive element, on the contrary, they achieve a very good contrast, which furthermore doesn’t sound misplaced, thanks to the very good production.
I was thrilled, and I urge you to not only stick to the promotional videos released by the band (a better selection of tracks could have been made according to my opinion), but to listen to the album in its entirety.
Rating: 7,5/10
Editor: Kostas Kafritsas
Related Link: MORPHIUM – Facebook Page
