Armed with that ferocious black/death metal sound that the Italians do so well, Morbid Sacrifice are a quartet who are as vicious as their name suggests. This quintet offer no quarter and deliver a listening experience that goes straight in for the kill. Ceremonial Blood Worship is the name of their sophomore album, and comes highly recommended for those who like their music with plenty of bite.
Morbid Sacrifice get straight down to business with the crushing title-track, seventy-two seconds of demonic growls, skull-splitting drums and weighty riffs. It’s the type of song that sorts the men from the boys and acts like a kind of initiation ceremony; either you are hardy enough to withstand the sonic onslaught, or it’s time to go back to your crochet. Having past the test, we are treated to ‘Venomous Messiah’ and it is here that the band hit top gear and, like the proverbial bat out of hell, comes tearing out the speakers, and with some force. Yet, there’s plenty of variety on offer here with some neat time changes to ensure things never become staid, and that’s something carried over onto the following ‘Bloodsoaked Salvation’. With a riff that could swing with Black Sabbath, the band get low down and dirty to dredge riffs from the very depths of Hades. However, at whatever speed Morbid Sacrifice operate they dish out an abject lesson in brutality, and one that takes no prisoners.
Maybe it’s a reaction to coming from a country that’s deeply religious, but Ceremonial Blood Worship is a truly blasphemous album, and one that will find the band permanently barred from the gates of heaven. In fact, if Satan has a resident house band, then I’m sure they’d sound a lot like Morbid Sacrifice. The band take Sodom’s classic ‘Conjuration’ and put their own indelible stamp on proceedings (which is how all covers should be handled), and in a case of fortune favouring the brave, it really works and they claim ownership, rendering the song their own. This is a very heavy listen, yet there’s also a strong groove underpinning the riffs; there’s a real swing present which ensures that the tracks operate like a huge wrecking ball that’s come to demolish your speakers, and no more so than on the penultimate ‘Bleed For The Horned King’ which sets things up nicely for the shit-your-pants scary outro, ‘Alucarda’.
At just 24 minutes this is a fairly brief listen, yet with music this brutal that’s plenty, and true to the old adage, it certainly leaves you hungry for more.
- Ceremonial Blood Worship is released via Godz Ov War Productions and is available here.
Track List:
- Ceremonial Blood Worship
- Venomous Messiah
- Bloodsoaked Salvation
- Cremation Ritual
- Conjuration
- Serpent Of Abomination
- Bleed For The Horned King
- Alucarda
