Mord

Christendom Perished

Southern Lord 2006

Mord unleashes their first full length album of Nordic flavored Black Metal.  Mord perform a style drenched with ferocity and tightness which borrows heavily from Dark Funeral/Marduk but filters it through a Gorgoroth blender.  Basically it is hyper fast brutal black metal with some Norwegian sensibilities.  It is kind of a departure from their fellow countrymen who normally play a more atmospheric and in my opinion a style that is normally more loose.  Occasionally they even throw in some strange, almost industrial sounds.  I guess this is a bid for a bit of originality but this tactic actually detracts from the listening experience for me.  There are some pretty strong songs on the album for example Opus VI with its hyper intensity and freezing cold main riff.  In general though I find Mord kind of bland and derivative.  There is not much catchy and the only thing they really have going for them is an utter brutality but in the end this makes all the songs kind of become somewhat forgettable.  That is kind of sad since I had high hopes after hearing their first release Unholy Inquisition.  I thought there was a lot of potential displayed there but it seems like on Christendom Perished Mord only took a half-step ahead rather than the full leap I expected.  Maybe next time they will live up to my expectations.  Or maybe my expectations are too high.  I mean Christendom Perished is solid and well played and well produced but it just doesn't seem to grab me.