Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Mordax - Violence Fraud Treachery


The new Danish thrash band Mordax’s debut full-length, Violence Fraud Treachery, came unannounced to me and it wasn’t an unpleasant little surprise. It is a breed of thrash metal and melodic death remarkably similar to benchmark group The Haunted, but it perhaps pays a bit more homage to Metallica than that band, taking the song “Contrapasso” as an example. Mordax rely on catchy thrash breakdowns; old school riffs with a more clinical modern edge, and present a pleasingly easy-to-listen-to set of numbers based on this principle. Indeed we’re given little else apart from a few well-played acoustic segments. Dan Swano is producing (suitably) so the sounds are all tight as hell. I would criticize the vocals for being the kind of standard crap heard in melodeath and metalcore these days, but one has to admit the riffing is pretty badboy for most of the album. The remainder of the album is made of cast-away riffs, though in Mordax’s case, these are relatively few. The rest of the metal world however is a different story. I don’t know if record companies put pressure on bands to create albums of greater length, but I really feel that many bands of certain styles (namely thrash, death, and black metal) should not be worried about length or how epic their albums are, but instead strip them back to only the most vehement riffing and concentrate what metal is really about: raw, dark, powerful intensity. There is often no need for filler or second-rate material. There is often no need for your album to blast on for a full hour. Shoot short and fast but shoot to kill. And *cough* Mordax are not an exemplary culprit of this, so let’s conclude the review…

Mordax sound young and fresh and they sound like they’re enjoying themselves very importantly, yet it remains to be seen whether or not they will climb the ranks and actually break any ground in the future. They do however seem to be very skilled musicians with a real talent for writing heavy thrash riffs, so I hope the best for their future. I suspect they will make a name for themselves, because VFT is just a very, very listenable forty-five minute chunk out of your day.

In summary: Mordax present a slightly generic yet effective and extremely accessible thrash/melodeath combo. Recommended for fans of The Haunted, Black Breath etc.

Standout tracks: “Silhouette of God”, “Treachery”

Score: 7.0

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