MORAST - Dead Out From Graves

5 songs
37:06 minutes
***** ***
(self released)

Bandpage

It’s been already three years since I had the pleasure to listen to the first Morast demo. Consisting of former Black Candle guitarist Dan on vocals and instruments and a certain Pir on drums, the East Coast (of Luxembourg!) proto black metal duo is now back with their new CD titled Dead Out From Graves. Not much has changed with the two misanthropes from the Moselle river. The album has been recorded in just one day, to be more precise on 2nd April 2012, and this of course guarantees once again the primal sound that Morast call their own.

The record starts with two tracks already known from the demo: Remacum Burns is an ode to their hometown Remich, and Necrofog is the only track below seven minutes featured here. If this seems a bit like a lazy move, don’t despair, because the following material is as yet unreleased and shows Morast from a vastly improved side. Of course they are still lightyears away from being a hi-fi band, but now they achieve the ancient thrash sound better than ever before. Take for instance Countess Bloodlust, which is a track that Hellhammer or early Celtic Frost couldn’t have done better. On the title track, the band even manages to add some high speed parts, with exactly the nimble helter-skelter beat as we loved already on the early Sodom albums. The concluding I Am Vulture once again summarises the band’s virtues, concocting a mix of proto black death thrash metal. Thirty years ago, it was bands like Bathory, Sodom and Celtic Frost who were developing a style that would later make millionaires of more polished followers. Morast is a celebration to the ancient days when dreams of success were still beyond reach.

The very basic production will most probably scare away the younger generation which has grown up in a digital age, but everyone who was there when it all began will feel their hearts beat faster with this exceptionally authentic journey into nostalgia.