ALBUM REVIEW: Inevitability – Morgue Supplier
Grindcore as a genre can be a real mixed bag. Cacophonous and calamitous by definition, it’s very easy for bands to blur the line between playing hard and fast, and just tumbling into sloppy noise. It’s encouraging to see then that MORGUE SUPPLIER is in the gnarled hands of genre veterans DRUG HONKEY; Paul Gillis and Stephen Reichelt have come together once again for another swirling, snarling mass of disgusting brutality on sophomore offering Inevitability.
It becomes clear early on that this is a record made to make your skin crawl. However MORGUE SUPPLIER have not resorted to the tried and trusted trope of using blood-curdling screams or overwrought clips of horror films (save for a spectacular use of The Witch in the middle of the album); instead they have made eight writhing tracks that uneasily hang around just that fraction too long.
Ordinarily, to say a song lasts too long is a precursor for a criticism, but on Inevitability, it really works. They’ve subverted expectations that come with typical song structures by just adding in an extra bar here, or taking a brief break before the next phase of the song. It catches the listener completely off guard but is handled in such a way that it’s clear this isn’t a production issue. They just want the listener to be totally unprepared for every, well, Inevitability.
What also stands out is how grand the production and sound is for such an underground genre. The bass in particular is so sickeningly rich – the second half of Closing In features a particularly irresistible bass line. The guitar also rings out clear and true when not being shredded to within an inch of its life. The vocals sit just right in the mix so as to complement the terror going on around them, without ever washing anything out.
But most impressively of all, amidst all the vomited vocals and spasmodic sounds, MORGUE SUPPLIER have crafted memorable, catchy songs. Now, they’re not “songs” in the sense of triggering mass singalongs at your local karaoke, but you will absolutely find yourself identifying the madness in your head as Empty Vacant Shell, or waking from a nightmare that turns out to have just been your brain’s manifestation of Thoughts Of Only Darkness.
Across eight tracks there comes brief respite in the form of the brooding, atmospheric Departure (Interlude) and Inevitability (Outro), but while these are at odds with the likes of the frankly terrifying My Path To Hell, they still possess a phenomenal heft. Thick slabs of droning strings pull you into a mire from which it feels you will never escape. Perhaps more accurately these tracks feel like you’re being dragged into the pits of hell, while the rest of the album is the soundtrack to the horrors that lie there.
Inevitability is an album that needs – and deserves – to be heard to be believed. In pulling together the frenetic energy of FULL OF HELL and the bludgeoning torture of DEICIDE, MORGUE SUPPLIER have created something here so hideous, so grotesque, that’s it’s impossible to tear yourself away once you’ve noticed it.
Rating: 8/10
Inevitability is set for release on May 6th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
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