Mors Verum – Canvas (Atmospheric Progressive Death Metal)
I’ve said it a number of times but now, but it deserves repeating that Transcending Obscurity Records pumps out some of the most progressive metal I’ve come across. Normally when one of his promos appears I expect experimentation to the highest degree, and I get it. That tradition of expectations delivered continues with Canvas by Mors Venum, a new, soon-to-be-reigning champion of the Canadian scene (or at least I say so). There are bigger names associated with the progressive forms of death metal, but I’ve only enjoyed a select few, because the tendency is to bend the rules so far it becomes dissonant chaos for the sake of it. People who are used to the normal find anything like that, at times, positive, but they lack the experience to realize that experimentation qua experimentation is stilted. We don’t want that. As much as some bands want to experiment, you still need to maintain form, and this four-piece is fully cohesive with that element, making their work far above what most of you consider canon.
Canvas is difficult to explain, which is a central feature of most death metal that takes this approach. This in itself is sometimes a mark of ruin, but not in this case. Mors Verum paint with subtlety, making it difficult to single out any one moment among the many in this album, and thankfully with the pristine production your mind will easy weave in and out of the variations they create. Something like a megalithic, 19th century novel, Canvas is practically a semester of study; crushing riffs transform into delicate picking to evoke genuine unease, combined with vocals that balance guttural ferocity with rasping melody. Rather than overwhelming with progress, however, Mors Verum understands that need for an organic feel, for in this age of AI-slop too much experimentation risks sounding artificial, leading even the best of bands to overstay their welcome and making experimentation anathema. Canvas might require more patience than you’d like from death metal, but by the end the landscape is serenely brutal, and it successfully captures the best of the progressive movement in death metal without forgetting the much-needed affinity that makes this genre work best.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Mors Verum – Canvas
Transcending Obscurity Records
Cover Art: Arifullah Ali (kanvaskarat)
4.5 / 5
