As you read this, Morta Skuld are no more, in fact they changed name around 1997 to become MS2, a Nu-Metal/modern t(h)rash band. Unfortunately for them they pretty much just missed the big wave of the former and were way too early for the latter. I guess karma has its ways.
… oh, actually turns out they’ve reunited now… I’m clearly not up to speed with today’s high velocity cyberspace!
Anyways, what we have here is Milwaukee’s Morta Skuld’s first two demos ‘Gory Departure’ and ‘Prolong the Agony’ (both 1990) re-released for 2011 via bloody Relapse records! Both of these were produced by Eric Greif (Death management fame) and it definitely has that old school filth sound to it throughout! On top of these two demos we get two bonus tracks. One of them is an un-released single for Earache Records entitled ‘Eternal Suffering’ (1991) and a Metal Church cover of the song ‘Metal Church’ anno 1998.
There’s no question about it, this is definitely US death metal. It’s got all the elements, the vocals being especially Tardy. Guess what, this is actually pretty damn strong material. These are definitely classic demos of the early days of the genre. The songs here are well written and the riffs, whilst not particularly memorable, are very solid and more than capable to stand their ground next to some of their compatriots that went on to bigger things. This is where Morta Sklud started and went on to write four albums (Dying Remains and As Humanity Fades deserving a mention here) and making their mark in death metal history.
Definitely a reissue to pickup for fans of the genre/timeframe. For folks not so hot on all this, there’s not all that much to see here, so I’d start with the debut.
http://www.facebook.com/MortaSkuld
Miika Virtanen
MTUK HOME
