Written by Urkraffft on November 5th, 2005
Before I delve into the main body of the demo, I have a story to go with it! Here it is:
Ok, so one day I was on some DC++ hub. An interesting individual told me about his band, Morpha, and asked if I would download his first demo. The name of the demo eludes me at the current time, and it was somewhat promising; but ultimately a mishmash of ambience and odd vocals. A few weeks later he told me to download their cover of Burzum's "Dunkelheit". I didn't even realize it was a cover until the vocals and drums came in! How he managed to emulate the guitar tone of Burzum I still to this day don't know (or forgot), but just yesterday the same dude PMed me telling me to listen to his new demo "Stature". Enjoying some of the ideas in his(or their, I'll just use "their" for the rest of the review) previous demo, I downloaded it off of wherever they was hosting it, and here I am reviewing it.
What before was a disjointed collection of good ideas, is now formed into a very interesting and entertaining listen. The first track "December Ruins" starts with a piano, sinks into a lulling guitar melody, then flourishes into an atmospheric black metal song. It is tightly wound with excellent guitar playing and drumming, although it is a bit abrupt in its changes at time. If the stop before the vocals was a bit drawn out, then the full effect of what I perceive they were trying to do would have been achieved. Nonetheless this was the best song on the demo, and also one of the two black metal songs.
The rest of the songs on the demo are great ambient pieces with lots of nods to different bands. "The Unknown Chaos" has an overlaying keyboard melody which is reminiscent of Burzum's "Daudi Baldrs" album, and the track "The Long Journey" has a surprise for all Agalloch fans which I won't ruin. The other black metal song is a cover of Burzum's "Dunkelheit" which I have heard before. This time around it is a BIG improvement over their previous version, even though i've gotten tired of hearing covers of this song. The cover kind of hurt the demo a bit, but it still does a good job of staying true to the original.
The album ends perfectly and moves onto a bonus track. All in all, this is a very promising release and Morpha just keeps getting better and better. I'm also impressed by their recording quality; it has a charming DIY ethic which is both raw and clean. There are some imperfections in the recording, but it was still very listenable. In summary; I hope the band keeps recording their unique blend of black metal and ambient, and I also hope they flesh out some of their black metal ideas for their next demo.
I enjoy this demo a lot - 90%
Written by Grimloz on September 30th, 2005
This band seems very promising, as they do black metal and ambient. This demo is actually online for all who want to listen to it, and it is definitely worth it for free.
Track 1 is December Ruins. It has a weird piano intro before going into a steady slow guitar riff that is very cool sounding. There is also an ambient underlay throughout the whole song. The single guitar riffs moves off as some more piano comes in, and then it goes to some black metal with good drumming and guitar work. The riff is very catchy indeed. It kind of just stops all of a sudden, then comes back in with some tortured screaming in the mix from Aidan. It stops suddenly, and moves into an ambient portion. This leads back into the first guitar riff. This repeats over and over, and Aidan does some droning vocals in the background. I like this song a lot, but its mix job wasn't too good. Still solid nonetheless.
Track 2 is Unknown Chaos. It is a repeating keyboard melody that is dark and mysterious. Sooner in an ambient part comes in and underlays the keyboard melody. This song is repetitive but still good.
Track 3 is Dunkelheit. It's a Burzum cover and it is very well done. Probably one of the best ones ever done. It seems pretty spot on, and the guitar tone works flawlessly. I like the vocals, although they aren't as shrieking as Varg's. Great work here.
Track 4 is Revelling In Mysticism. It is a piano song reminiscent of Burzum's Illa Tidandi, but faster. The song is a little drawn out, and pretty repetitive. It's the weakest track here, but I noticed some sort of odd reverb in the background that sounds very cool. Also, when just one key is tapped and then it goes fast again is good too.
Track 5 is Transmission. It's some odd synchronized noise type thing. I've never heard anything like it before. It's just a closer but still interesting.
Overall, this is a fantastic demo and I hope to hear more from these guys in the future. This demo is for free online! So what are you waiting for? Go get it at the link on the band page
