Band: MORTIS MUTILATI
Country: France
Title: The Stench of Death
Label: Independent
Year: 2018
Style: Funeral Black Metal

Review:
I'm not your usual techy guy interested in what studio and on what equipment a band recorded its material, I'm more interested in the final result, the actual music than the means it reached there, but since this is a one man band (although three diferent individuals recorded this album) and I saw a mention it was recorded at a studio in Sweden, I got interested to find if the studio is a real one. And indeed it's a real studio, with serious equipment, a massive client list (including names like Marduk, Ofermod or Ragnarok), and with Devo from Marduk behind the buttons. On top of that the band has played already at home and over the borders and is touring Mexico this month (March). This gave me the certainty Mortis Mutilati is a serious project with definite targets and the necessary will to reach those targets. Regarding the music on this 4th studio album from Mortis Mutilati the label Funeral Black Metal suits it perfectly, we're talking about a slow to mid-paced sad, melancholic type of Black Metal with plenty of disgust in the vocal compartment plus a fair share of fast paced, even brutal traditional Black Metal passages to avoid being considered a weak / soft release, so don't worry, this is not your average melodic Black Metal to impress chicks, the keyboard part is quite subtle and only used to increase the horror / chilling effect, and the occasional female vocals (yes, those are present, too) are used with the same finesse just to imprint a ghoulish image to the whole. The guitar tone sounds French indeed, but to be honest the overall compositions made me think of the Russian / Ukrainian Black Metal scene, even to vocals are going that way. The part where the music lacks is the predictibility, most of this album, if not all, flows without any big surprises to impress the listener; it's a solid, serious, entertaining effort, but I think the band can still do more in the future.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:
mortismutilati.bandcamp.com