I’ve been a fan of Finland’s Desecresy for the last 5 years and have really loved their past 4 albums.  They used to be a two-piece act, but vocalist, Jarno Nurmi decided to bail last year leaving Tommi Grönqvist, who plays all the instruments and is the band’s artist, holding the bag.  Rather than pack it in and realizing his labor of love Tommi said Fuck It, I’m going to sing on the new Desecresy album, The Mortal Horizon.  Desecresy continues to march forward!

I find The Mortal Horizon bringing more of their atmosphere back, from prior albums, which I love.  I loved their last album, Stoic Death, but it was missing some of that atmosphere and with a full two years between releases, The Mortal Horizon, brings it back ten-fold.  “Amidst” gets into a fast passage and then Tommi’s haunting guitar melodies and I am noticing the guitars are slightly heavier and Tommi does a bang up job on vocals.  He sounds similar to Jarno, just deeper.  The 2.19 moment with the simple drums patterns and guitar melodies really work at isolating the music and this is killer when the fast part comes in and then right back into the demolishing mid-paced roll that feels like tank treads are burying you in the mud.  “Percussive Necromancy” has a great and haunting beginning with a killer off-kilter beat.  The 34 second isolated guitar part is the Holy Shit part as it goes right into a mid-paced rumbling heaviness that is filthy and disgusting.  There are some fast passages to the song and the true organic nature of Desecresy is one of the many things I appreciate and love about their music.

The Mortal Horizon ends with “Approaching Infinity” which begins as sort of funeral dirge, doom/death number.  Very depressive and the haunting guitar melodies return to swallow your worthless soul.  While it’s cool, it’s an instrumental and I am not a fan of records ending with instrumentals.  There is a lot of atmosphere soaked in on the track, but maybe placing the track in the middle somewhere, would have worked better.  This really is my only gripe with an otherwise strong release from Desecresy.  The Mortal Horizon is drenched in heaviness, doom, gloom, depression, organic and true stripped down heavy death metal.  Desecresy are not technical, not blasting, but stay true to form on this album.  The haunting guitar melodies are on display throughout the album and on “Perpetual Waves”, with the killer bass guitar lines is a thing of beauty.  Desecresy’s songs are easy to headbang to and a wonderfully catchy as well.

Tommi once again creates a phenomenal album cover.  Their album covers captures the essence of their music and the use of blue tones against the black landscape is excellent.  He also places light in all of his covers and how it reflects is just eerie.  I love it!  Played with emotion and passion, The Mortal Horizon is a wonderful release for 2017.  Buy or Burn in Hell!

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments