Album Details

• Artist: Gloria Morti
• Album: Lifestream Corrosion
• Label: Firebox Records
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2013-02-24

After digging into their new release Lateral Constraint, I decided to go back in time a bit and get a sense of Finnish melodic death metallers Gloria Morti's origins. Lifestream Corrosion debuted in 2004 to considerable acclaim, and laid a bit of the groundwork for the band to continue into the future. The comparisons between Gloria Morti then and now, from what I've read, seem to equal a more favorable nod towards what they've become. However, I find myself much more engaged by what came before.

First and foremost, the production values on Lifestream Corrosion are much more flat, which seems to lend wonderfully to the grand, sweeping nature of the melodic black/death metal the band prefers. Perhaps I feel this way because of my fondness for early Cradle of Filth records, which is a fair comparison even beyond the production qualities. The bombastic melodies and epic choruses Gloria Morti dishes out here are very much nods to the UK gothic/black metal maestros. Where GM separates themselves is in the core death metal foundation, a wall of sharp riffs, precise and vicious percussion and guttural growls that work in tandem with the higher-register vocals, big melodies and ample keyboard usage. The band very much applies themselves to what has been known to be a fundamentally Finnish mindset of pop-oriented metal, but the grime and grit that saturates Lifestream Corrosion balances out the more...sugary...sections very well.


9 tracks, 3 of which are forgettable and the rest offer plenty of big beefy riffage and truly memorable melodies, Lifestream Corrosion has kept my attention far more so than the band's latest album has. For fans of early-era Cradle of Filth and perhaps even Soilwork, In Flames and the like, will find that Gloria Morti gave them a sizable dose of melodic mayhem, once upon a time.

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