Any self-respecting black metalhead could make a good argument against the type of production that’s been given to Mordant’s second offering Black Evil Master. It is clean and sober, with rounded and polished edges. The whole thing has the gloss of a generous budget, but this is perhaps just masked by good and cheap technology. It is actually quite cushy, with a guitar sound that is electric and slightly distorted alright, but the riffs don’t cut across anything. The drums are clear, the cymbals wash you gently and the voice though necro is well-balanced and far from hysterical. The point of the self respecting black metalhead would be that such an approach detracts from the grittiness that black metal as a genre has fought for since its start, that it approximates this anti-everything genre to levels that can be enjoyed by the masses.
It is a point well-taken. However, one must take into consideration what Mordant are doing to justify the sound of their album. For the most part Black Evil Master is a mid tempo affair, and an uber melodic one at that. The songwriting is musically entrenched in the 80’s in the same way that a band like Dissection tamed their style towards the latter half of their career. In songs like the mantel piece “Council of Evil” one will be right to think of the cleanliness and harmonious work of Ghost, which in turn worships at the feet of Mercyful Fate. That same odor rubs off all over Black Evil Master, with its twin guitar races and other times harmonic lines hovering over a riff that is all but dirty.
It’s detailed work elevated and at the same time taken down to the depths of an ass’s avernum by the vocals of the appropriately named Bitchfire. Sporting a killer receding hairline and a full beard, Bitchfire is not above the common black metal frontman in look and style. He enunciates with anger and frosts his words with a moist throat. The songs, do not precisely shine because of him, but fall under the genre of choice.
About fifteen years into their career, Mordant’s latest promises almost more than any other album released in 2011. Promises refer to the future. If these Swedes remain constant and apply themselves, one can only hope that they can in near times craft an album almost as immediate and eternal as In Solitude’s The World, The Flesh, The Devil. The talent is clearly there.
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Written by Ignacio Brown
