Wisconsin’s best death metal band returns with their seventh full-length album Creation Undone.  With mainman Axe Grinder and vocalist Dave Gregor fronting the band, they are on fire on this album.  And I do want to get something out of the way right now.  I really do not care how album covers are created – I never have, in all my years of listening to music.  I just like something that catches my attention.  The band has gone on record as saying this cover has an artist who did it as well as some A.I. generated technology.  You would have thought Morta Skuld had murdered the President, for chrissakes with some of the hate and overall ignorant comments I read.  Comparing parts of it to other covers…really ridiculous.  I applaud the band for using forward-thinking measures to craft a cover, one that will soon take over the industry, mark my words.  I think this album cover is one of the best I have seen in recent memory.  Now I know some of you may have a differing opinion than mine and guess what?? That is 110% ok, we can differ, but always be respectful when you’re on sites rather than slagging people and bands just because they offer a differing opinion.  No need to take the piss out of someone, just to make yourself feel better, ‘cause you then end up looking like the fool.  Capeesh?  Great and thank you and onto the review.

10 songs and opening with “We Rise We Fall”, at close to 5 minutes, may in fact be one of the most intense and scorching death metal opening tracks the band has ever done.  Opening with a ripping guitar riff and the double bass over the riffing is fast. Eric House continues to eat drums and then he rips into a nice blast beat before the mid-paced meltdown comes in with Dave’s killer enunciated vocals.  Very much so.  You do not need a lyric sheet either.  The snappy little blast beat returns then right into that massive mid-paced heaviness.  It’s dynamite.  Check out that blast beat and double pounding at the 2.34 part.  This smokes!!!  Then the song slows down and a nice little nifty guitar solo comes in and sounds a bit otherworldly.  This guitar tone may be the heaviest tone the band has achieved thus far.  It’s a real dirty guitar sound, but you can make out the chords and riffs without issue.  The song finishes up with more blasting than traversing back into the slower mid-paced, excruciatingly heavy riffing.

Whew—if you’re not wiping the sweat off your unibrow than you’d better start cracking.  “The End of Reason” begins with some slower riffing and then right into the mid-paced speed, with excellent and understandable vocals from Dave’s throaty pipes.  This song showcases Morta Skuld’s skill with the rhythm section – it’s on fire.  The jumpiness at the 1.40 section I can see a pit swelling and swelling as if Jaws was circling the pit chasing everyone and nipping their legs to smithereens.  This is a nice slow grinder to wedge in the middle of a live set.

“Soul Piercing Sorrow” has a great old-school gallop, mixed in with massive snappy blast beats.  Once the mid-paced part kicks in Dave lets out a killer growl and the song has more heavy riffing and then returning to that old school gallop, then BOOM-right into a scorching blast.  The main guitar riff is super catchy and the Holy Shit part is the 2-minute mark.  The song gets into a monster-heavy riff, as the song slows down, from the gallop.  This part…JFC..that riff….it’s lethal and will lop off heads within a 1,000-foot radius, for sure. I enjoy some of the creative guitar soloing going on towards the end and it has a little Disincarnate flair to it, then right into that heavy AF riff.

Ending with “By Design” is a bit different for the band, as the song is mid-paced and does not start off super aggressive, but this gives the song a chance to have those riffs breathe first before the song picks up the pace.  The pace stays slow to mid-paced until the 2.57 with the double pounding blasting and then boom, right into full fledged blasting.  This is super aggressive and I really like the guitar riffing and picking during this segment.  Super chunky.  More guitar soloing going on and the song teeters towards the end with the slower parts returning.

There you have it.  Another Morta Skuld album to kick your buck teeth in, right down your gulliver.  The album is the heaviest the band has written and is no less aggressive than prior efforts.  There are plenty of tempo shifts galore, to keep you on your toes and the album is excellent and a well-written death metal album.  As a side note, I collaborated with Dave again, as I did on their previous album Suffer for Nothing.  The song lyrics I helped write on this album are: “We Rise We Fall”, “The End of Reason” and “Oblivion”.  I had a lot of fun and when you’re able to be part of your friend’s brainchild, as Morta Skuld is for Dave, well that means the world to me.  Creation Undone is brutal, melodic, ripping, and quite honestly crushes skulls like this album cover depicts.  Buy or get pushed into a wood chipper!

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