Album Details

• Artist: Morkobot
• Album: Morbo
• Label: Supernatural Cat
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2011-10-19

If necessity really is the mother of invention, then this review is going to do Italy's Merkobot very little justice. With nothing from the top (or bottom or middle bits) of my head to compare them to, and absolutely no clue what the direction and intent of Morbo actually is save for a press bio that does little but assume mental imagery for the listener to bring with him/her while they listen, I can only say that this record is...different. And, luckily, it's the sort of different that can be enjoyed precisely for being that.

Track titles like "Ultramorth", "Orkotomb" and "Oktomorb" are lost on me, but that's not the point. Neither is breaking this record down from track to track. Ultimately, Morbo is one long, cohesive stream of musical consciousness. Fully instrumental, Morkobot craft a sound that falls somewhere between stoner, doom, sludge, acid and...well...trance metal, if such a thing exists. They are masters of the groove, with an oddly toned bass very much dominant in the mix and very much utilized to it's full extent. The rythmn is the focus; everything else is just a mess of riff-raff that inevitably does more to frighten you than suck you in. It's an interesting dynamic, and one that does not fail to impress from the first seconds to the last. The entire record is a swirling dirge of impressive grooves, catchy songwriting, tight and driven percussion and, I'm sure this was the whole point, an abyss of mental imagery to fall into. I hate to peg any music as being made for stoners...but this is pretty much what I'm hearing, and I know a toke or two would send me further into the sound than I would be without.

It's certainly heavy, certainly well-written, and if my calculations are correct, Morbo has a place in the collection of any fan of stoner doom sludge acid psychadelica. I'm not a big fan of genres, or using them to describe what I hear, but it's the only surefire way I have of relating what I'm hearing from Morkobot. It sounds much better than simply saying "hey, these guys are a lot of fun, check them out!". Or maybe not...hmm...why not just listen to that last bit and do yourself a favor. And maybe bring a gram of the good stuff along for the ride.

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