I completely disregarded this release for a few months because the recording level on this album was so damn quiet, that I could barely hear the music in regular volume. However, while jamming some songs on a large home stereo, these guys popped up and I was actually able to hear the album without really cranking it up. It turns out when you can actually hear the second effort from these Polish old school death metallers it isn’t bad at all.

Squarely cemented on the current old school death metal revival, Kingdom ply a mix of mushy, murky Incantation-y goodness and a dash of Stockholm death metal, which is evidence by a ripping cover of Nihilist‘s “Supposed to Rot” about halfway through the album. Unlike country mates Ulcer who went for the cleaner Dismember/Entombed sound, Kingdom is filthier and rooted in the genre’s unpolished and primal demo days, again as the previously mentioned cover track hammers home.

At a shade under 30 minutes, Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy is a short, nasty listen that cuts to the bone with ample moments of rumbling, crawling, echo-y riffs (opener “Slaves of Ruin”, “Morbid Priest”) and bursts of dirty, no frills Swedish, Discharge-y rooted death metal like the snarling “Beast of the Sea”, “Tombs of Dead”, or “Summoned From Dead” and even a nice old school groove in “Nameless King” The production values (when you turn it up loud enough to hear) also display the musical influences with a dirty guitar tone lying between Incantation, Autopsy and demo era Stockholm death metal or early Finnish death metal demos. It carries the weight of the material perfectly but doesn’t sound like a intentionally raw or some unreleased 1988 demo, being weightily dirty. The gurgly, wet vocals also seem to mix all of the bands chosen influences.

The album is over in a short blustery assault that is neither brilliant or terrible, but a pretty middle of the road, and considering my ignoring of the album, surprisingly savage little album. Just remember to turn the volume down on your head phones when it’s done playing so the next song does not implode your eardrums.

[Visit the band's website]

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