(written by Islander)
Lest any poor deluded souls think it’s okay to relegate cover art for albums to afterthoughts, mis-believing that half-assing the artwork won’t matter as long as the music is strong and will sell itself, just take a look at the above artwork created by Arifullah Ali. We venture the guess that even people who have never heard the music of Mors Verum will be so intrigued that they can’t help but want to hear their new EP.
As it happens, this writer was already familiar with Mors Verum’s past releases (for example, we’ve hosted two premieres in support of their previous music), including their dissonant, dizzying, and strangely beautiful 2021 EP The Living.
The band’s previous releases also obviously caught the admiring attention of the Transcending Obscurity Records, because on February 6th that prominent label will release a new Mors Verum EP named Canvas, which features the fascinating artwork up above.
Fittingly, this Ontario band’s new EP is every bit as fascinating and frightening as the artwork — a conclusion we think you’ll share when you hear our premiere of its title song (and one other we’re also sharing).
Canvas (the EP) doesn’t stint fans. It’s only five songs long, but those songs add up to more than 30 minutes of music, thus satisfying at least the Reign in Blood standard for a full-length. And the songs are the kind in which so much happens that they may seem even longer than the clock measures, though it’s more likely you won’t have much sense of time passing at all.
Consider the title song as evidence of these claims. On the one hand, it initially comes across as a hulking and heaving monstrosity, pared back in its construction and oppressive in its mood, paired with ghastly gravel-throated vocals that are equally malignant.
On the other hand, this musical beast gets its blood up, vigorously throbbing and strangely squealing. Discharging shrill tremolo’d chords, the riffing begins to fiendishly writhe, and the music also crashes and darts, shivers and squalls, blurts and blisters. Beneath all those mercurial fretwork contortions the drums are in constant flux and the bass growls in a way which reminds us there’s still a beast in the mix.
On the third hand (it’s good to have genetic deformities in describing this kind of music), the drums mildly patter and tick, the music ejects strangely whining and groaning bursts, the bass wanders around at the forefront, an ethereal but ill melody slowly floats, and theremin-like quivering tones (almost like a wailing voice?) add to the music’s hallucinatory aura.
On the fourth hand, even as those eerily wailing emanations continue, the music starts slugging in off-kilter fashion, the drums kick up exhilarating fills, and the riffing again becomes strangely convulsive, weirdly squalling, and ecstatically spiraling.
See for yourselves: This is as completely fascinating, mind-warping, and captivating as the EP’s cover art, and actually more so — a prog-minded and adventurous (but also brutal and sublime) manifestation of death metal that ought to capture the attention of lots of adventurous listeners.
LINE-UP:
Guitars – Kamble
Drums – Greg
Bass- Spencer
Vocals – Lyndon
Canvas was recorded at Boxcar Studio (Hamilton) by Sean Pearson; it was mixed by Kamble at Erb Street Recording in Waterloo; and it was mastered by Topon Das at Apt2 recording in Ottawa. The tremendous cover art is the work of Arifullah Ali (KanvasKarat).
T.O. will release the album on vinyl, CD, and digital formats, along with lots of other merch featuring the great cover art. They recommend it for fans of Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Norse, Ulcerate, and Saevus Finis.
T.O. has also released the album’s fantastic opening song, “Bloodied Teeth“, and you’ll find that below as well.
PRE-ORDER:
https://morsverum-label.bandcamp.com/album/canvas
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
MORS VERUM:
https://facebook.com/morsverumband
https://instagram.com/morsverumband