Cripes, here is another band like Greece’s Sun of Nothing, that I have not heard in fucking ages. With Sun of Nothing there was a 21-year gap between their debut …and Voices, Words, Faces, Complete the Dream way back in 2003 and this year’s Maze. With French bruisers Morgue it was 2002’s utterly devastating The Process to Define the Shape of Self-Loathing, and now 2024 sees the band release album number 5.

Morgue took a break in the early oos, after The Process to Define the Shape of Self-Loathing, but has been active since 2016, releasing 2 albums, which I have not heard. But honestly, I doubt there is much in their discography that could top the complete and utter pummeling of The Process to….. At the time it was literally one of the most punishing grindcore/death metal albums I had heard, and to this day remains up there with Anaal Nathrakh‘s The Codex Necro or Nasum’s early work as one of the most vitriolic albums I have ever heard,  22 years later. The only thing that has come close was Hate Manifesto‘s ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ  back in 2023.

So when the promo for Close to Complete Darkness dropped, I wanted to see if the band was still capable of such a racket all these years later and the answer is .. yes.

Though age has tempered many of us and slowed us down, the same can’t be said for Morgue (again, I can’t compare this album to the last 2, just the debut). For most of the album’s 33-minute run time, they do deliver close to the same levels of savagery, but they also have learned some control and pacing amid the vortex of savagery as the 33 minutes that comprise the album have more slower, reigned-in, churning moments than I recalled with The Process to……

Early on, there is some sheer, face-ripping stuff that recalls The Process….such as the openers “Upon the Altar” (complete with orchestral intro),  “Doorways in Crimson Red” and “Blemish”. Then there are tracks like”Sacrificial Blood” and “Disobedience”, “Towards Complete Darkness” and closer “Speculative Fall of the Human Race” which add just a little more moody menace to the fucking blistering salvo.

Much like any release in this unrelenting style, this isn’t a pick-a-song-and-repeat type affair. You sit down, strap in, and take the fucking beating like a fucking man, spit out your teeth, wipe your mouth and move on.

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