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MORGUL BLADE
Heavy Metal Wraiths

No Remorse (2024)
Rating: 8/10

Following on from their 2021 full-length debut Fell Sorcery Abounds, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based sorcerers Morgul Blade return with Heavy Metal Wraiths, a dazzling record wrapped in cool artwork.

Morgul Blade is somewhat clever in their musical structures due to the faint waft of blackened essence that hovers around their steely presence; imagine then some of Bathory’s more subtle and traditional elements mixed with the leather clad bravado of Brocas Helm. The band also have an eye for a slice of dungeon synth too with ‘A Welcoming Hearth’, but for the most part this is fist-pumping metal that drips with a seriousness and brooding.

My waffling aside, Morgul Blade lurks in Mercyful Fate territory at times, constructing chilling compositions and anomalous ambience, particularly with ‘Widow’s Lament’, while the Tolkienesque ‘Beneath The Black Sails’ sweeps you up like a mystical mist. The album isn’t short of melody either even with its glacial and often gothic tone, but the band never sacrifices its weight either. The booming title track, the blackened metal of ‘Frostwyrm Cavalry’ and the speedy evil of ‘Spider God’ all demonstrate the band’s stormy snarling nature, while closer ‘The Last In A Line Of Kings’ features sublime strings to add atmosphere.

Like its predecessor, Heavy Metal Wraiths is cloaked in a darkness and full of ideas resulting in a marrying of styles that drag you into its depths which sizzle with nostalgia but also fresh glistening steel.

Neil Arnold

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