Band:	Mord
Album:	Necrosodomic Abyss
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	February 2008

01. Opus I
02. Opus II
03. Opus III
04. Opus IV
05. Opus V
06. Opus VI
07. Opus VII
08. Opus VIII

In order to attract the unsuspecting listener, some bands choose to develop grand lyrical concepts, others try to focus on mouth-gapingly beautiful artwork, others still decide to cloak themselves in an aura of mystery. The two Norway-based Polish expatriates of Mord picked a more straightforward way, so you wouldn't mistake them for a country rock band. The cover of the album - Jesus being eaten by demons - leaves about nothing to the imagination and the title is an exquisite piece of fine poetry. But that's ok, because Mord doesn't have the arrogance to pretend that they are anything deeper than a black metal hate machine.

"Necrosodomic Abyss", besides holding all the prerequisites to compete with Belphegor in a "most ridiculous album title" contest, illustrates the will of Mord to revive the old-school spirit of mid-90's Norwegian black metal, coupled with strong leanings towards the most brutal fringes of the BM scene, represented by 1389, Enthroned or the first Marduk albums. In other words, what you get from the first to the last second minus eight (due to a few piano notes at the end of the album) is fast, brutal black metal with a thrashy vibe and sometimes one or two references to dirty rock'n'roll ("Opus II"). The accent is put on the riffs, which are rather simple but damn efficient. The production, cold and clear, is pretty good for the genre though it might have benefitted from taking a slightly rawer approach.

Now of course, Mord suffers from the usual shortcomings inherent to the genre. Though the drumming's having a couple of interesting moments, the over-triggering and constant blasting can become quite tiresome. The main fault of "Necrosodomic Abyss" is its blatant lack of variation (the first real change in the rhythm occurs on "Opus V"), though somehow the usual "everything sounds the same" impression is not very present here. That's probably due to the (again) good riffs and to the kvlter than evil vocals, which just fit perfectly.

Now, all that may be charged against this album is simply coming from the established features of the genre (except, of course, the irritating habit of calling all their tracks, since their first demo, "Opus something"). Taken as a simple black metal album and as long as you don't demand anything too deep and complex from it, "Necrosodomic Abyss" (I don't think I'll ever be able to type this title without sniggering and shaking my head in disbelief) is typically the album that can fulfill the needs for speed and brutality of any metal listener (just try the Opuses I, VI and VII for Satan's sake!), and it has enough qualities to have a good replay value.