Mortuorial Eclipse - Urushdaur

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MORTUORIAL ECLIPSE is an Argentinian blackened death metal band founded in 2007 by Nefass, Mysteria and Doom. After countless local shows and a demo released in 2009, Baal Herith joined on keys and orchestrations in 2010. A few lineup changes and a debut album later, the four piece releases their sophomore album, "Urushdaur."

Without prior knowledge of the band, right off the bat on "Ruin Empire," you would swear you are listening to BEHEMOTH. Layered vocals and guitars, machine gun precise drumming and even the vocals themselves starkly resemble those of Nergal. What MORTUORIAL ECLIPSE lacks in originality, they make up for in heavy orchestration, best exemplified on "Arcane Legacy of Astral Numina." It does call to mind DIMMU BORGIR in this respect. "Secrets of the Revenants" contains some truly catchy and speedy grooves, the all out assault continuing into "Ophis Martys," with a slow build up of dissonant chords and war drums, soon the title becoming a war chant, if you will.

"Cult of the Carnal Disarray" keeps the offensive going with plenty of blast beats, double bass drumming, and a good touch of piano whilst never compromising the ever present orchestration. After a quick acoustic interlude that appears to have a heavy Arabian influence on "Beyond the Sands of Perdition," a fiercely groovy and chaotic track titled "In Extremis" seems to have a similar influence at moments. "Edge of the Black Portent," the closing track of the album is a dreamlike instrumental with strings and piano, percussion every so often building in the distance. It slowly ends with melancholic violin and wistful piano.

"Urushdaur" is a tremendous show of the quartets supreme talent, each member an athlete and all behind a very clean and crisp production quality. Unfortunately the execution does not come off as well, as the band too closely resembles giants in the game.

Songwriting: 8
Originality: 5
Memorability: 6
Production: 9