Consuming the Tangible

From April 23, 2024

Who holds aloft the torch for heavy metal, I ask? Who lights the fires for righteous, riff-tastic old school heavy metal, out of which we would forge dreams of furious battles, willing our bodies into the fantasy-driven artwork, becoming one with the hook? I lift my head from the beaten path, paved with the bones of false metal idols, letting my gaze fall upon the wicked cover for Heavy Metal Wraiths, the sophomore full length from Philadelphia metal merchants Morgul Blade and my body tastes its first morsel of sonic redemption. The hooded knights approach, their blades shining with the light of the almighty riff. The Earth plunges into darkness, while in the distance a bell rings out the clarion call for some of the best blackened traditional metal this side of the world.

This album is great, is what I’m sayin’…

Read the rest over at Nine Circles.

I think there are probably comparisons to Nite here, another group doing this kind of thing very, very well. The thing about Morgul Blade though is their strict adherence to a solid, meat and potatoes heavy metal attack that doesn’t lean as much into the extreme side as the Nite guys can (and will, to glorious effect) do. I have a metal playlist called “Killing Music Forever” (it used to be called Music for Killing, but that seemed weird out of the context it was originally created for – a soundtrack to blasting aliens in Destiny and Halo) and it’s filled to the brim with this kind of metal – stuff with groove, with hooks, and with that unique spirit of rock and roll, visible even under all that armor.