Monday, June 3, 2013

Mortyr - Rise of the Tyrant


Mortyr’sRise of the Tyrant” is the third album that will be released by Stormspell Records this summer featuring Rocka Rollas mainman Ced. This project has fewer details surrounding it, so I’m not sure if it is written entirely by Ced or not, but nevertheless, he proved to be quite productive this year. Mortyr is considerably different from those other projects, however. They are a thrash band, and an extremely heavy one too. “Rise of the Tyrant” is clearly a nod to the mad thrashing brutality of bands like Dark Angel, early Kreator, and Sadus. If you’ve come for vicious sounding thrash, this is the record for you.

The opening title track is one of the few tracks on this record that strays in a bit of a different direction. There is a very clear melody that runs rampant throughout the track, and that is a feature that is not prominent on many other songs. For the most part, Mortyr provide riff after riff of high-speed thrash. While there are many standard, simple thrash riffs, there are also much more complex passages, not unlike something you might find on “Darkness Descends”. In fact, the track “Dark Angel” appears to be pure worship of the aforementioned band as it relies only on its intensity and riff quality. As you might have already guessed, the vocals on “Rise of the Tyrant” are the kind that will tear various limbs off of your body from their sheer tenacity. They perfectly compliment the style, though they unfortunately tend to make the songs one-dimensional. To differentiate themselves from other death/thrash bands, Mortyr tends to utilize plenty of more technical guitar solos. This is not a surprise, as Ced has proven in his other bands that he is a more than capable guitarist, and that influence definitely gives Mortyr a different feel to their music. “Merciless Game”, for example, features a dueling lead guitar harmony that would be more at place in a power metal song than a thrash one. My sole criticism of this record is that not all of the songs are particularly memorable. There are certainly moments of brilliance in many of these tracks, but unlike on “Pleasure to Kill”, I cannot instantly recall every single one of them. Nonetheless, if you want something that thrashes intently, Mortyr is a solid choice.

Highlights
"Rise of the Tyrant"
"Dark Angel"
"Screams of Death"

Final Rating
3.9/5 or 78%. 

Written by Scott