In one hand he grasps a stone tablet but the other is outreaching, straining, as though he seeks to claim the sun itself. It’s perfect the reaper himself surfing an asteroid like a celestial Major Kong through the ruin of a city block. It’s undoubtedly one of the best on the album, its peaks and troughs flowing and ebbing with unquestionably perfect judgment.Įven the cover deserves a special mention. The six minute “The Forsaken” is somehow both a combination of all the best moments from each song before it and a totally unique piece, starting with a serene piano melody before mutating and being devoured by some fantastically fast guitar work and the consistently standout drumming, lending the piece much of its pace and ferocity. Suitably for an album so concerned with endings, the finale is probably the best song on there. (The fact that the instrumental is ushered in with the words “There’s no God to save us now, this is the end” is just icing on the apocalyptic cake.)Īnother standout is “I am War”, primarily for it’s tremendously throaty vocals that never quite cross the line into incomprehensibility and the lightning on a fret board solo that follows the grim proclamation “You know my name, my name is War”. It’s a powerful combination, perfectly suited for a track titled “God has Fallen” which reaches its climax with a powerfully evocative instrumental section that calls to mind, if not the death of hope, then at least a mortal wound. The guitar work is fierce but graceful, like a panther in ballet shoes, purposefully calling to mind immense scale at the same moment in which its vocalist invokes images of tragedy and death. A quiet clockwork tick that builds into an odd little song of its own before being backed and eventually consumed by darker, more traditional metal. It opens with an instrumental, as so many of these albums do. This, their confidently titled fifth album “Dawn of the Fifth Age”, is the latest in a heavenly barrage of supremely good melodic death metal from the Finnish band that serves both as a reminder of how important these guys are to the scene at large and to restate what the equally appropriately titled “… And Death Said Live” already told us: line-up strife can fuck itself, we won’t stop kicking ass. Thankfully, Mors Principium Est seem to exist solely in that sweet-spot. It’s a damn shame considering that when the stars align and everything works out it’s hard to imagine a better combination of influences.
Either there’s too much focus onto the grinding, grunting fierceness of death or the lofty complexity of melodic metal. For some bands that can be pretty difficult to do, apparently. Melodic death might well be one of my favourite genres, at least when it’s done right.