Band of the week 45/2023
Origin: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre: Heavy metal
Hier geht’s zur deutschen Version.
The band about itself:
„Morgul Blade conjures heavy metal magic and might. They deal thunderous, twin guitar wielded riffs that rumble like a swarm Black Riders from Lord Of The Rings, from which their namesake is derived. This four piece powerhouse from Philadelphia describe their sound as “powerchords and swords,” forged with working class attitude.
Morgul Blade delivers a righteous dose of headbanging anthems – snarled with menace and sung with triumph – and encompassing folk melodies, doomed passages through soulless mountains, and battle-hardened gallops into the night. Their influences span everything from Immortal and Bathory, to The Scorpions, Dokken and Candlemass.“
Editorial commentary:
You probably know this (almost petty) categorisation of bands and their music. Does the band you are listening to play black, death or doom metal, or maybe a mixture of these? Are the riffs typical thrash metal or rather heavy metal? At Dark-Art we deal with such questions on a regular basis, but the classification does not stop at the sound. Even the themes of the music can degenerate into categories. The best ‚example‘ is Pagan Metal, which seems to deal with only one subject, the Vikings and their culture. However, the list of topics that metal bands have explored is very long and includes some exciting and unusual subjects, and musicians have not stopped at books. One of the books that can be considered a legacy of fantasy reading is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. His books about the Fellowship of the Ring and the battle for Middle-earth have been reinterpreted several times.
One band that draws on Tolkien’s work in their music is the US heavy metal band Morgul Blade. The band from Philadelphia has released a demo, an EP and an album. I highly recommend their album Fell Sorcery Abounds. In the album the musicians deal with several stories, not only from Middle-earth. Check out the song A Last Waltz of Gevaudan, best with the great video in 8-bit graphics.
The musical framework is heavy metal, but there are hints of thrash and black metal, with a dash of epic metal. The album developed into a dark patchwork as I listened to it, especially the last three songs, where the black metal really stands out. To sum up, Morgul Blade is an exciting project for people who like high fantasy but find modern power metal too flashy.
Music recommendation:
Links:
Band of the week is our weekly posting about a band we recommend and is posted every Tuesday at 8pm (CEST). These are bands that are just at the beginning of their career and that we think should recieve more attention.
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