Musmahhu – Sign of the Odious

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From Nykoping, Sweden, comes the Death/Black Metal band MUSMAHHU. Not much is known about them save, for “Sign of the Odious” is their debut full-length album. “Apocalyptic Bridage of Forbidden Realms” is the opening track. Heavy and dissonant, the Death vocals rattle your soul. Although the drumming is precise and out of this world, there isn’t much uniqueness here. “Musmahhu, Rise” is a dark and heavy track with a mid-tempo pace and a lot of filthiness. The beast is unclean and wishes to spread his vile disease everywhere. “Slaughter of the Seraphim” is a slower, more methodical beast at first, and then it explodes with fervor and energy. In Sumerian mythos, Musmahhu took the form of a bird Gog, one of three.

“Burning Winds of Purgatory (Melanspel)” is a shorter song with anguished vocals coming from tortured souls, destined to remain in purgatory forever. “Reign of the Odious” is a seven-minute beast. Opening with mysterious sounds, it doesn’t take long until the chaos hits. It pauses around the half way mark, the guitars re-focusing for the new strike. The phasing effect is a pretty cool addition to the sound here. “Spectral Congregation of Anguish” wastes no time coming straight for your throat, with massively impactful drumming and a heavy and aggressive sound. It pauses around half way through, and then picks back up, deeper and darker then ever.

“Thirsting for Life’s Terminus” closes the album. What the album doesn’t have in originality it makes up for in the earnest vocals and the precision drumming. If they could figure out a way to channel some of the darkness with some new tones, they might really be able to figure something out here. It teases you with potential but is not quite there yet. Cold and dark torture devices suddenly come to life after decades of dormancy. Open the doors that have shut them away. Dust off the cobwebs and start to oil and clean them, until they come to a mirror shine, ready to serve a new master with surgical precision. Gather the subjects and get them in one by one and wait for the sweet sound of their tortured screams.

Songwriting: 6
Originality: 6
Memorability: 6
Production: 7