This post was originally published on this site
It’s been over a year since MORNINGSTVR’s debut album dropped, and while that was a blink and you miss it release, he’s back with A Fate Engraved. The one-man black metal-synth project from LA has improved on one aspect of the debut. This time he’s made songs that sound like actual songs.
You may be confused with that statement, but MORNINGSTVR‘s debut album was a calamitous affair. There was no semblance to any of the songs, and with fourteen of them you’d be forgiven thinking it was just one long song with just a few times to breathe. A Fate Engraved however does show that he can write songs that have a direction of where they’re going. Unfortunately for Morningstvr, that direction is questionable at best.
Synths in black metal aren’t a new thing. You go back to bands like EMPEROR and DIMMU BORGIR and they’re no stranger to using synths to make their songs sound bigger and theatrical. MORNINGSTVR’s attempts at this are, to put it bluntly, horrific. The album sounds as though it was mixed inside of a cement mixer in a thunderstorm.
Yes, you can make the argument that black metal is meant to sound raw and emotionally charged. But A Fate Engraved has taken it to the extreme. In fact the black metal element has been removed almost completely. It’s an uncomfortable assault on the senses that the synth portion of the album is solely responsible for. The synths sound overproduced in contrast to the instruments, if you can even call the that, it sounds as though they’ve been replaced by chainsaws and drum machines. MORNINGSTVR‘s vocals are tragic at best, a horrendous wailing that’s almost drowned out the entire time, that makes you wonder why he included them on the album. Maybe to give a background feeling of dread, but who knows.
Some ideas sound great on paper but are then executed in a fashion that you wince at the very thought of it. A Fate Engraved is that thought, and the fate of MORNINGSTVR has been engraved into the annuls of the forgotten.
Rating: 2/10
A Fate Engraved is set for release June 20th via self-release.
Follow MORNINGSTVR on Twitter.
The post ALBUM REVIEW: A Fate Engraved – Morningstvr appeared first on Distorted Sound Magazine.
