MORTA - Releases Debut Full-Length

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Published on Friday, 08 September 2023 11:04

Written by Jerneja

Today, Spanish black metallers Morta released their debut album, La España negra, via Signal Rex.

One of the black metal underground's best-kept secrets, Morta, first arose from the crypt with Signal Rex's release of its debut EP, Fúnebre. Banging 'n' clanging anguish echoing from the filthiest dungeons, the then-trio's first short-length succinctly displayed their palpably physical - and surprisingly emotive - attack across nearly a half-hour. In a sense, Fúnebre felt like an album, but such was still brewing...

At long last, Morta's debut album bubbles up from the primordial muck with no small amount of rudeness: La España negra. Pure and proud black metal from southern climes, Morta's first full-length carries forward many/most of its predecessors' foremost strengths - deft shifts from spiralling violent hypnosis to scabrously headbanging segments, a remorselessly raw-yet-refined sound field, ugly and emotional in equal measure - but a relatively wider (and wilder) swath of ideas and textures are given ample room to roam across this 39-minute recording. Just like that predecessor, La España negra resides firmly within the realm of black metal, be it elder expressions from the 90s and underground-entrenched ones post-Y2K; the now-quartet honours the sanctity of the artform by exploring their vibrations rather than those of others. But within a longer format and maximizing that expanded lineup, Morta often allows the bass guitar to guide the eerily hummable melodicism - again, one could liken that to a romanticism unique to their Spanish heritage - and even when pushing busier, denser tonalities, there's a perversely ethereal quality that creates a cool disconnect. Their dungeons are more profound than ever, and the reverberations go straight to the soul...

Here it goes - La España negra... Link