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LORD MORTVM
Diabolical Omen Of Hell

Self-released (2021)
Rating: 7/10

Here’s a disturbing one-man band straight out of Norway, and we need to thank Lord Mortvm himself for this fright-fest of black doom that begins with an evocative film sample before a fuzzy slug of a riff creeps out of its hole to a barren drum clatter.

‘Altar Obscene’ is the opening track, a sloth of utter misery that doesn’t even reach a trudge in its seeping guise. The dark lord’s vocals are mere scraping rasps of gloom as I envision some stalking spectre in the cold, black woods flitting from tree to tree, leaving hoof marks in the pristine snow.

Welcome then to this hate-driven black mass of a record daubed in six pitiful tracks, including hit single ‘Devil Doll’ – a straight up black doom thud of rank vocal snaps and a plundering, slobbering occult crawl. Throw this one in though with Crooked Whispers, Uncle Acid, et al if only for the scorched and unexpected fuzzed-up guitar solo and those sorrowful cries.

‘Omega XIII’ resurrects Anton Lavey’s speech of psychedelia before lumbering in utterly unkempt fashion from the bog, with a slow motion apocalypse of crushing doom. Indeed, the barren simplistic designs deserve only simplistic words; Lord Mortvm doing nothing bone-shattering except to ring out unholy wails of blasphemy amid slow tides of sorrow and disgust.

Revel then in the sludgy tirades as ‘Children Of Haze’ entangles itself in needle fluff and psych-doom seasoning to a dissonant wail of melancholy. The drums here act as mere clangs of woe, like remote clatters of wood striking cereal boxes with bathroom echo.

The whole primitive, crawling atmosphere ensures thickening menace throughout as ‘Sodomizing With Satan’ adds further weird quirks of possession and diabolical summoning before the dark Lord conjures up another lethargic swamp of guitar fuzz and drum prod.

‘Merciful Lord’ closes things off, as more blackened doom and ominous gloom spills black ooze into the ears, eventually consuming the mind and body in congealed soot and succubae shit.

With debut album Diabolical Omen Of Hell, Lord Mortvm has crafted a despicable nest of sombre, satanic sticks and bones, all drenched and weighed down by unspeakable syrupy waves of gloop created from Satan’s lumpy seaman. This may be a hard slog to tolerate, even with all of its occult connotations and remote sprawls of evil wisdom and woeful gurgling, and yet I’m still a sucker for such punishment.

Neil Arnold

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