UMUR "Wounds Deeper than Time" is the 5th full-length studio album by US, Wisconsin based death metal act Morta Skuld. The album was released through Peaceville Records in February 2017. Morta Skuld disbanded in 1998 after the release of their fourth full-length studio album "Surface (1997)" and "Wounds Deeper than Time" is therefore the band´s first album release in 19 years and the first since they reunited in 2012. They did however release the "Serving Two Masters" EP in 2014. There have been quite a few lineup changes since the release of "Surface (1997)" and it´s only lead vocalist/guitarist Dave Gregor who remains from the lineup who recorded the predecessor.

Stylistically the music on "Wounds Deeper than Time" is mid-paced and heavy US death metal. It´s technically well played and well produced too (the production is in the clean and detailed end of the spectrum), but the songwriting is not especially exciting, although there isn´t anything of bad quality here. It´s all just a bit generic and not particularly memorable, which is also exactly how I remember Morta Skuld´s releases from their original run. Call it second tier US death metal or something along the lines of that, the fact is hundreds of similar styled and equal quality US death metal artists exist, who didn´t/or haven´t made much of a mark, because their songwriting just isn´t up to par with the top tier artists of the genre.

Upon conclusion I may have been a bit harsh in my statements above because "Wounds Deeper than Time" is still a decent quality death metal release. It´s just not a standout release on the scene but taking all elements which make up the album into consideration (production, musicianship, and songwriting) a 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted.

UMUR "Suffer for Nothing" is the 6th full-length studio album by US, Wisconsin based death metal act Morta Skuld. The album was released through Peaceville Records in September 2020. It´s the successor to "Wounds Deeper than Time" from 2017 and features one lineup change on the bassist post as John Hill has replaced A.J. Lewandowski.

Stylistically the material on "Suffer for Nothing" continue in the US death metal style of its predecessor. In fact very little has happened between the two album releases, and Morta Skuld still deliver technically well played US death metal (not technical death metal) with good variation between fast- and mid-paced parts. The songwriting is solid, but not particularly memorable, and the catchiness of the music is not exactly enhanced by the one-dimensional and quite emotionless growling vocals. On the positive side the album features some well played leads and the occasional effective heavy groove.

"Suffer for Nothing" features a well sounding production which suits the material well and it´s one of the assets of the album, which is otherwise a pretty standard quality affair. It seems Morta Skuld just aren´t able to rise above being a B-league US death metal act, which to my ears is true for their original 90s releases and true for this release too. There´s nothing offensive or bad about "Suffer for Nothing", but there´s little really great about it either. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "As Humanity Fades" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US death metal act Morta Skuld. The album was released in 1994 by Deaf Records/ Peaceville Records. Morta Skuld introduced themselves to the world with the "Dying Remains (1993)" debut album, which is a pretty standard US death metal release. I´d actually go as far as to call it mediocre and unremarkable.

...unfortunately things haven´t changed much on "As Humanity Fades". Morta Skuld still play some really standard US death metal. The pace is mostly kept heavy and mid-paced with a couple of faster parts thrown in for good measure. The doomy slow pace and haunting Paradise Lost (early) inspired leads from the debut are not a part of the band´s sound anymore. The vocals are brutal and mostly indecipherable growls. The vocals are not bad, but they soon become monotone. I miss passion and bite. The worst sinner here are the songs themselves though. After a couple of tracks it all becomes a monotone blur. There are no hooks to hold on to and the songs are forgotten as soon as they are over. If the band had chosen to include more memorable ideas like they do in the track "Different Breeds", where they include some nice short acoustic breaks I think the album as a whole would have been much more entertaining. The fact that "As Humanity Fades" is 50:18 minutes long, doesn´t exactly help either. That´s way too long for a death metal release when you don´t vary your music more than Morta Skuld do.

The production lacks a bit of punch, the musicianship is solid but not outstanding and as mentioned the tracks lack memorable moments, so all in all "As Humanity Fades" is a fairly standard product. I had really hoped that Morta Skuld had stepped up from the mediocre debut but I guess my hopes were set too high. I´ll rate this one somewhere between 2.5 - 3 stars.

UMUR "Dying Remains" is the debut full-length studio album by US death metal act Morta Skuld. The album was released in 1993 by Deaf Records/ Peaceville Records.

The music on the album is pretty standard US death metal. It´s not of the technical kind but not of the most filthy kind either. The music is mostly slow- to mid paced but there are faster parts on the album too. I was actually a bit surprised by how many slow doom/ death parts there are on the album though. Those parts and the guitar leads remind me a lot of "Lost Paradise (1990)" era-Paradise Lost. Not exactly elements that are typical for early nineties US death metal acts. The rest of the music is more typical US death metal. The growling vocals are mostly deep and indecipherable, but there are occasional aggressive sneering growls too. The vocals are generally a bit monotone IMO.

The production is not the most powerful one I´ve ever heard. Actually it´s kind of flat and lifeless. A very mediocre sound but it´s not unusual for the time.

"Dying Remains" is not a bad death metal release by any means, but still I´m pretty much indifferent towards it. There´s nothing that stands out as unique on the album and I probably wouldn´t be able to tell that it was this album I was listening to if someone played it to me. I hate to point my finger at Morta Skuld, but IMO it´s albums like this that meant the downfall of death metal in the mid nineties. Too many standard releases that didn´t, and had no intention of, exploring boundaries or create an unique expression killed the scene. I guess a 2.5 - 3 star rating is warranted but I can´t really recommend a purchase.

Time Signature Paradise of the metal...

Genre: death metal

Do you like your death metal old school? Then this release by Morta Skuld is the perfect choice for you. It is just about as old school as it gets, and, what's more, it was released in 1994, smack in the middle of the death metal heyday of the 1990s.

The music on this release basically combines the heaviness of Bolt Thrower, the crushing sound of Obituary and the level of technicality and sense of variation of "Spiritual Healing" and "Leprosy" era Death. The sound slike generic 90s death metal, you say? Well, I like to think of this release as capturing all the good things from 90s death metal without actually sounding generic or like the many rip-off acts of the era.

There are a lot of heavy parts and crushing riffs on this album, and even some groove too, and while there are thrash metal polka beats, the blast beats associated with modern death metal are absent - and I appreciate that - not that I dislike blastbeats or anything, I just appreciate a band that focuses on heaviness, riffage and breakdowns (but not in the way that has become popular in modern deathcore, I should act) rather than speed all time, and I've always been of the opinion that music can be brutal without being fast, and there certainly is a lot of brutality to this album. The bass may have a funny clunky sound, but I actually like how the bass has a prominent sound, and the band also utilize the bass very well, making use of bass-filled breaks and bass-drum parts to great effect.

I think that the vocals are perhaps a bit boring, and if there is anything generic about this release it's the vocals which are just standard growling. That being said, there is a certain rhytmicality to the vocals, which serves to remind that in death metal, the vocals are more of an almost percussive instrument than a tonal one.

In all, this is - or should have been - a death metal classic, which I think appeals to all fans of good old 90s death metal.