"children of the morgue"
Year: 2024
Country: US
City: Arlington, Virginia
Label: Hells Headbangers
Format: CD
Tracks: 12
Time: 55 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal
Just when you thought things couldn't get any creepier from the Deceased, we're now presented with Children Of The Morgue.
Established 40 years ago back in 1984 by vocalist King Fowley and guitarist Doug Souther (who departed from the band under tragic circumstances) is the American death/thrash band Deceased. Setting out with the ambitious intentions of out-thrashing Slayer, they experimented in a number of musical styles, ranging from the early foundations of death metal, thrash, and heavy metal, as well as going through several band titles before eventually settling on the name Deceased in 1986. Their themes generally involve subjects of death and horror (zombies in particular), and their discography spans 20 full-length albums in addition to countless EPs and demos, leading to latest offering Children Of The Morgue.
Children Of The Morgue's recording line-up consists of a quintet featuring founding member and vocalist Fowley alongside Les Snyder (bass), Mike Smith (guitars), Shane Fuegel (guitars), and Amos Rifkin (drums), a line-up that's remained unchanged since previous album Thrash Times At Ridgemont High. Unsurprisingly, the album's concept is based on the subject of death and all surrounding it. Although the band have an ambitiously dark and twisted back catalogue, Children Of The Morgue promises to be their darkest and heaviest release yet, but after a staggering 4 decades of heavy thrashing, does this album achieve this?
The album begins its whopping 55-minute duration with a short, heavy-toned, slow-paced instrumental intro morbidly titled "Destination: Morgue". This sets the album's dark setting in motion before swiftly leading to the quite lengthy main opening title track, where it's clear from the off that the band really mean business. Throughout "Children Of The Morgue", the band bends every genre they've previously dealt with to their disposal, from OSDM and traditional heavy metal, to classic thrash, and in these early stages, listeners are treated to a fine display of classic wailing thrash leads, heavy OSDM riffs, a pulsating mid-to-rapid tempo, and aggressive gnarly growls, and this is just a taster for what's to come.
Following the next short interlude is "Terrornaut", a song which seemingly takes a more traditional heavy direction similar to Mercyful Fate; certainly putting less emphasis on thrash and death this time round, it's also here where Fowley brings his first creepy cinematic narration to the party. However, it's back to their classic thrash direction with "The Reaper Is Nesting", as here the riffs are clearly more thrash-based and ferocious, and the rhythm more rapid-paced. This is the most headbangable and ferocious song so far, and the mid-song solo is a definite early album highlight. The first real epic track to feature is "Grave Digger" at just shy of 9 minutes in length, and it's a dark one at that. The song begins with a tense, heavy, mid-tempo build-up, and the vocals at this stage are all the more dark and menacing, but the tempo inevitably picks up as the rhythm section gallops into action alongside riffs that surge with epically memorable melodies.
So far, there's nothing highly inventive or mind-blowingly original about the album, but what it does do is bring all the band's material from previous albums together and show them in their finest form yet. The downside, however, is by the time you've reached "Eerie Wavelengths", the quality doesn't really improve much; neither, though, does it drop below a reasonable standard, as it continues to provide that strikingly lethal combination of death, thrash and heavy metal. As expected, there are a few moments that may raise a few unwanted eyebrows, but maybe none more so than the haunting female witch-like narrations, but although they're not nearly as convincing as King Diamond, they do fit with the album's dark cinematic concept. Before you're fooled into thinking the album has run its course, "Farewell "Taken To Forever"" finishes the album in epic fashion. It begins with a soft acoustic melody that quickly erupts into the band's heaviest and most ferocious material yet, with an ultra-frenzied headbanging rhythm section that provides the foundation for an array of classic catchy thrash riffs and traditional solos, ultimately finishing the album how it began, which was certainly a great start to begin with.
Despite its near-hour running time, Children Of The Morgue is over before you even know what's hit you; it's certainly a great and epic way to mark their 40th year anniversary. Since their origins, Deceased have always remained somewhat ambitious, delving into the three classic genres of death, thrash, and heavy metal, and they've managed to carry that tradition through to now, where they've ultimately crafted everything they've known and done into this one album. Children Of The Morgue is not going to go down in history as one of the all-time great achievements in metal history, but it's an outstanding achievement in this band's own right, considering how they've kept releasing quality material after all these years despite never reaching the heights of popularity of so many others established during the same time frame (*Review by Andy Metal Freak ).
