Punching back up through the soil after just a couple of years interment this latest full-length album from Milan, Italy-based death metal quintet MORBUS GRAVE acts as a direct follow-up and general companion to their debut in that it echoes the shape and general sound of that achievement while continuing to develop their appropriately performative yet raw 80’s death metal style. Composed from the elemental uncertainty and rugged power of the proto-and-pure era of death metal the frayed and thrashing edges of ‘Feasting the Macabre‘ are gilded with the guts of horror cinema and zombified gloom making for a macabre setting where heinous acts are detailed and all riffs arrive in steadily creeping steps, a looming invasion. Though this body is built from similar skin and bone this time around the terror and tension imbued into these ancient death metal songs help to differentiate and further define the band’s sound.

The major goal of Morbus Grave since 2010, back then formed by way of Erman, who at the time was best known for his work with Razorback Records-era death/doom metal band Sepulcral, and the major goal should still be evident enough in that they’ve always aimed for a late 80’s death metal style which drew a clear line between the earliest better known United States groups as well as obvious enough initiators such as Slayer and Celtic Frost. I’ve already detailed the short history of the band a bit in review of their debut full-length album (‘Lurking Into Absurdity‘, 2022) but the gist of it is that I’d found their approach recalled early Necrophagia, maybe certain Deceased records, and Master/Death Strike in both its vocal cadence and marauding, sometimes thrashing riffcraft. These days we typically get fewer ultra-specific “retro” death metal acts that amount to populist worship and more often end up with throwback death metal which takes a very generalized impression from one or two old scenes and inserts “modern” ideas pulled from post-metal but in this particular case we get something wholly different in that they’re willing to go full ugly, non-populist with their choices and keep it ‘old school’ and viably underground. This makes for a far more listenable album, one which one-ups the previous in terms of variety and musicianship.

Landing its sledge in just barely under a half-hour and split between ten songs ‘Feasting the Macabre‘ isn’t out to hit you with an opus, opting for a quick and dirty rub through whichever circle of Hell we’re in today. With each pass I’d found the brevity of the full listen was easily enjoyed and altogether uncomplicated as Morbus Grave did well to find a simply lain kinda tuneful, horrified step and bash away at it for roughly seven thrashing, punkish death metal songs (see: “Feasting the Macabre”.) The first half of the album concerns itself with developing both atmosphere and a jogging pace as “Where Evil Dwells” staggers, steps and eventually blasts down into its rhythms enough to carry a sinister melody and lord over the proceedings with a snarl. At that point they’ve more-or-less established the core pacing, the default speed of this band in general. This’d been one of my least favorite parts of their debut but thankfully they’ve shaken it up along the way.

Morbus Grave might kick it up to d-beaten Swedeath levels of fuss here and there (“Funereal Embodiment”) to shake off the torpor of their cold, bloody ‘old school’ sound but the most exciting moments on this album for me were those that’d take on doom metal inspired, eerie riffcraft and lean into a slower pace. My favorite song on the first several passes through was “Congregation of the Exult”, a horror-death metal song revealed in grotesque gape which is feasibly stretched into death/doom metal inspired territory. It isn’t the only piece to take on a slower pace and lean into those doom inspired riffs but that’d been the song to give me pause and pay closer attention to what these guys were doing early on in the review process; The part of the band’s approach that reminds me of Slaughter kicks up a bit more often (“Feasting the Macabre”, “The Immortal Realm” etc.) along the way and these tended to be the songs that’d stuck with me longest otherwise.

The best showcase of the horror built, the atmosphere and the mania of ‘old school’ death, as well as the punkish and kicking ferality of Morbus Grave‘s approach all crystallizes into the rotted-out grooves of “Lusting Terror” which I suppose has a ‘Severed Survival‘ type energy to it depending on the verse but as we step into the final third of the song ancient ex-thrasher muscle memory takes over and the song finishes its thought simply enough. You’ll have gotten the point by now that every piece has something new to show, a different pace to step off and another horror to detail but you’re not getting anything outright brutal in the 90’s death metal sense. Though if you were a fan of the ominous melodic edge of “Where Evil Dwells” to start I think “Dissolving Obscurity” helps to compound that creeped energy later on in the album. They’ve run the gamut in a way which should suit fans of the oldest, crustiest underground death metal ways well enough and this time around I think they’ve done a much better job of crafting an entertaining, repeatable experience within those parameters. A high recommendation for niche specific freaks, a moderately high recommendation for the revisionist seeker.

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