(By Brian Halsey, Staff Writer, RiffRelevant.com)
As an American who was fortunate enough to spend a bit of time in Norway and stand next to a Viking ship excavated from a frozen burial mound, I consider myself a default authority on any type of music in the neo-folk-avant-garde-metal-rock genre. MOROSITY is a group of gentlemen from Minneapolis, Minnesota who wear the badge proudly and deliver an eclectic batch of songs on their new album ‘Low Tide.’
‘Low Tide‘ is Morosity‘s second album and starts off very heavy on the folk metal / art grunge side, with an impressive array of stringed instruments consistently mixed in to vary song structure. Production for ‘Low Tide‘ was handled by lead vocalist Jesse Albrecht, who recorded, mixed, and mastered all of it within his own home studio, Evensong Studios.
This isn’t verse-chorus-verse / repeat kinda stuff, there are beautiful dips and turns at every angle to keep each passing song fresh and interesting. Songs like ‘Ouroboros’ and ‘Moon’ both summarize their style adequately.
Later in the album, the band turns toward more of a stripped down, acoustic vibe. It is still a very enjoyable listen, but you can tell they are covering quite a bit of ground on one album. The music is gloomy and almost cold, but not a depressing cold. More like a breathing in crisp mountain air while searching for your ancestors kinda cold.
Start to finish, this doesn’t feel like something that would be necessarily categorized as “metal,” but music like this does represent a growing collective within the metal community.
The well deserved and massive spotlight placed on black metal’s one-woman phenom (Myrkur) has shed an even larger light on bands like Morosity, who use a wide range of instruments to achieve a very earthy folk sound.
For that reason, an album like ‘Low Tide’ fits dutifully within a collection of heavy music. We all love Mayhem, but if you listen to that type of stuff non-stop, you have a better understanding for why those dudes started to murder and cannibalize one another.
Morosity belongs in a very respectable mix with bands like Wardruna and Heilung. They might not be Scandinavian enough to get you running around high on muscimol-infused reindeer piss, but you’ll be happy you listened all the same.
Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it:
Morosity is:
Jesse Albrecht – vocals, guitar
David Rowan – guitar
Nick Johnson – drums
Shawn Bachinski – bass
Jason Wolfe – violin, guitar, mandolin
‘Low Tide’ is available as a digital download via Morosity‘s Bandcamp page, as well as in physical format on CD and limited edition vinyl pressing (100 copies on green vinyl) through Morosity‘s webstore.
