Heavy Metal Tribune

Mordax [Denmark]
Violence Fraud Treachery
2012
Full Length
Ultimhate Records
Death/Thrash Metal

Monarch Of All by Mordax (Denmark)

Coming highly recommended from famed musician/producer Dan Swano is Mordax's debut full length album, Violence Fraud Treachery. Managing to get such praise from such a respected member of the metal community certainly marks well, with the band being merely almost 2 years old and having only released 1 demo thus far before this album.

An acoustic guitar intro greets the listener as the album opens, leaving a sense of unease, feeling almost as if this were the calm before a violent storm, and this is proven right as the acoustic guitar slowly gives way to electric guitars, and a jarring, heavily chugged riff is thrown towards the listener. A thrashy riff then immediately greets the listener as the intro end and Trademark: Strangulation ends. While the breaking of Steffensen's vocals as he growls out the song title at the beginning could put a listener off, thinking that this is a mark of a bad vocalist, one soon realises that this is merely his vocal style, sounding somewhat like a cross between a thrash metal shout and a more throaty death metal growl and this could take some getting used to initially.

As evident right from the start, the band manages to fuse elements of death and thrash metal seamlessly, with the amount of blazing fast thrash metal riffs and heavy, crushing death metal riffs that are thrown together. Guitarists Mads and Lord Insane are also clear about what they want to achieve, and this can be seen on the soaring guitar solos that they often include on top of the usual shred-fest, that brings classic thrash metal bands to mind instantly. The chugging style on Acts of Aggression even brings to mind bands like Meshuggah with the erratic picking patterns, and those on No Redeemer can definitely be labelled as pure, unadulterated thrash metal. Apart from these more obvious influences, there are also some moments of melodic death metal included, such as the riffs on songs like Devoured by Life and Acts of Aggression, that will satisfy listeners with an inclination towards more melodic material, though these also come with a thrash metal touch through the guitarists' execution styles. On Monarch of All the band again surprises listeners with Dan Swano appearing as guest vocalist on the track, upping the intensity factor yet another notch.

There are even emotional moments on the album, with tracks like Necrotic Hordes see the axe-wielding duo pulling out an almost desperate sounding melody, and one almost expects an emo-core styled vocals to come in, and fortunately this does not happen and the band soon goes back to their usual form, though the sappy solo on the track sounds sufficiently like those emotional breaks on a Dream Theater album. The only true ballad on the album then (if it can be considered so), comes in the form of the instrumental Contrapasso, with its slow and emotional progression, and gives listeners a look at a different side of Mordax, though the song does not lack moments for the band members to display their abilities on their individual instruments as well.

The album is not without its pitfalls though. There are moments when the band attempts to suddenly jump from more melodic segments into heavier ones, and while the effort to come up with something fresh is commendable, these at times end up sounding awkward and out of place, such as the moments before the solo on Devoured by Life.

To top the already catchy songs on Violence Fraud Treachery, Dan Swano's production job here is also stellar, being extremely clean with each instrument equally clear in the mix, helping to further inject life into the songs, making this a nice, headbanging record through and through despite the slightly slow and weaker start to the album.

Mordax on the internet:
Official website
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MySpace
Ultimhate Records

©2012 Heavy Metal Tribune | Hong Rui