UMUR "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh" is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch experimental extreme metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. Gnaw Their Tongues is a one man act consisting of Mories who handles everything from music to artwork on the album. The album was self-released in January 2006.

The music on the album is dark, extreme, ambient, noisy, unpleasant, experimental but most importantly very intriguing. The music actually defies catagorization that´s how unique I think it is. I find it deeply fascinating. I´ll try and describe it like this: The basis in the music is droning and dark distorted bass/ guitars and what sounds like programmed/ sampled drums (they could be real though. I´m not sure), but on top of those add layers upon layers of samples, sounds (eerie sounding keyboards/ synths/ piano/ strings) and voices. And we´re talking really unpleasant samples of tortured screams, moaning, blood dripping, creepy heavy breathing, autopsy details, mad preachers and other unpleasantries. The vocals are raspy and tortured screams which mostly appear low in the mix. The perfect soundtrack to a torture scene or one of those rare horror movies that are actually scary. To be honest I have no idea how this music is made. I´m a musician myself but this goes beyond my knowledge in music. There are tons of little details going on at any given moment on the album and the music on "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh" certainly wouldn´t work as background music. This is a demanding listen and it deserves to be dealt with accordingly. There´s a dark, filthy atmosphere on the album and I kind of feel like a naughty child listening to something mommy definitely wouldn´t approve of. A filthy and shameful feeling yet at the same time exciting and addictive. It´s like people passing by a traffic accident. They know it´s wrong to look but they can´t help themselves.

While the music is somewhat rooted in black metal, there´s very little on "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh" that resembles traditional black metal. The track that resembles traditional old school black metal the most is "Healing Open Wounds With Salt" but "...Gnaw Their Tongues in Pain" and "Seven Heads and Ten Horns" also feature some faster paced sections that could be viewed as somewhat traditional. Most of the album is slow and droning though. With song titles like "Death, Suffering and Death", "Healing Open Wounds With Salt" and "...Gnaw Their Tongues in Pain" it´s easy to imagine the lyrical content on the album.

The production is raw, noisy and chaotic upon first listen but repeated listens have meant that the sound has opened up to me and I´ve begun to understand and enjoy the album even more. I think this sound is as close to perfection as you´ll get for the music on this album. It´s not often I enjoy productions as noisy and distorted as this one but under the right circumstances a raw production like this one can work wonders.

I know it´s big words but I don´t hesitate to call Mories a genius on the grounds of this album. He is probably in the mad and bizarre genius end of the spectrum but I´m sure he´ll take that as a compliment rather than an insult. I can´t wait another minute before I get my hands on another release in his extensive discography. Calling this a promising debut album would be an understatement of the big ones. I´d rather call it a mindblowing and extremely innovative release. The fact that the album is available for download on Gnaw Their Tongues myspace for a "Pay What You Want" download fee (the original pressing is out of print) just makes this release even more attractive. A 4.5 star rating is more than deserved and I might upgrade this one to a full 5 in time. This is what I call truly progressive and innovative music. I´ve been repulsed and I´ve been frightened while listening to this album and more than one time have I been forced to turn the music off because I just couldn´t handle it anymore. Yet I keep coming back because some dark perverted part of me seems to crave this. It´s taken me almost a year before I felt confident enough to write about this album. I hope I did it justice.

UMUR "...Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly..." is a demo released in August 2007 by Dutch experimental extreme metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The demo is not available as a physical release but can be downloaded for free on the band´s Myspace. There´s a blurred line between this demo release and the official releases by Gnaw Their Tongues when it comes to quality, so don´t expect this to sound like a demo compared to the band´s official releases. The reason for making a demo at this stage in the band´s career is a bit unclear to me as Gnaw Their Tongues already had several official releases under their belt at this point, but the recordings may be of an older date. As always with Gnaw Their Tongues releases everything from composing and playing to artwork design is done by the band´s sole member Mories.

The demo contains six tracks and the total playing time is 48 minutes. All songs exceed the six minute mark. The music is extremely dark with droning bass/ guitars, sampled/ programmed drums and layers upon layers of eerie samples and keyboard/ synth sounds. The music is somewhat rooted in black metal but has been given an experimental, industrial, droning and ambient twist. A song like "Nihilism; Tied Up and Burning" represents the black metal side of the music. It´s a noisy, intense black metal track and it kinda reminds me of a band like the noisy industial grindcore/ black metal act Anaal Nathrakh when they are at their most filthy. Most tracks are slow and droning though. The atmosphere is dark, eerie and unpleasant and with song titles like "Chinese Torture Worship" and "Horse Drawn Hearse" it´s obviously not the lighter sides of life that Mories writes about which is also obvious when reading the title of the demo. "Chinese Torture Worship" actually needs a special mention as it is positively one of the most unpleasant listening experiences I´ve had in a while. I listened to the song on my iPod while walking through the dark basement in the building where I live and it freaked me out to the point where I had to look over my shoulder several times to see if a monstrous creation was sneaking up on me. Eerie white ambient noise with tortured screaming vocals low in the mix. I ususally have a hard time appreciating this kind of ambient noise music but this song really is something special. "Horse Drawn Hearse" is a really fascinating track as well. Lots of atmosphere enhancing mad preacher samples in that one. The last track on the demo is "Seven Heads, Ten Horns" which was also featured on the debut full-length studio album "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh (2006)". I´m assuming this demo version was recorded before 2006 even though it was released in 2007.

The production is noisy and at times murky, but the dark sound suits the music well. It´s one of the more lo-fi productions in Gnaw Their Tongues discography though.

"...Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly..." is a great release by Gnaw Their Tongues and considering that it´s free for download on the band´s Myspace it´s an even more attractive item IMO. Gnaw Their Tongues has made many fascinating high quality releases but if you would like to take a listen to how the music sounds and not even pay for it, this is a great opportunity to do that. The demo is not Mories best release but it´s still a great effort and a 3.5 star rating is well deserved. It seems like Mories can do no wrong.

UMUR L'Arrivée De La Terne Mort Triomphante is the 5th full-length studio album by Dutch noise/ drone/ avant garde extreme metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The album was released in September 2010 by Crucial Blast Records. Gnaw Their Tongues is a one-man project consisting of Mories who creates all music and art for the project.

The music on L'Arrivée De La Terne Mort Triomphante is in Gnaw Their Tongues usual noise/ drone/ avant garde extreme metal style. While I´m not 100% sure ( there is no lyric sheet in the CD) it seems that there is a lyrical concept about death on the album. The word "Mort" is present in all five French language song titles. The music on the album is not easily digestible and is pretty sure to be an aquired taste. Layers upon layers of sampled noise and what sounds like orchestral samples, screaming and tortured distorted vocals, bleak distorted riffs somewhere in the back of the mix and the repetitive nature of the rather long tracks ( ranging from 7 to 11 minutes in length) will probably only appeal to few. The atmosphere is dense and at times almost claustrophobic and suffocating in it´s noisy intensity. I find it hard to sit through the entire album unless I´m in the mood for it, but when I´m in the mood Mories is able to create bleak tortured images in my mind no other artist can. While my enjoyment with his various projects varies, I think Mories is the true definition of a musical genious. A pretty twisted one too.

All five tracks on the album are enjoyable even though some of the most noisy and repetitive ones could have prospered from a hook or two IMO. My favorite here is without a doubt the absolutely epic opening title track L'Arrivée de la Terne Mort Triomphante. One of the best tracks yet from Mories hand. It´s grand, dark and beautiful beyond belief. This one is actually able to move me greatly.

As usual Mories has created a a dark, noisy and atmospheric production. In the case of Gnaw Their Tongues the production is almost like an extra active instrument that creates the unique sound.

I have listened to many of Mories projects in the last couple of years and compared to what I perceive as his best output I can´t say that L'Arrivée De La Terne Mort Triomphante is all the way up there. If the other four tracks had moved me the way the title track does, this might have been a 4.5 - 5 star album. All tracks are still high quality compositions though and they have a very unique sound to boot, so a 3.5 star rating is still warranted IMO.

UMUR Horse Drawn Hearse is an EP release by Dutch experimental/ drone black metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The EP was released in February 2006 on CD-R in handmade cardboard sleeve and in a download version. The 27:58 minute long EP contains 3 long tracks ranging from 7 to almost 11 minutes in length.

The music on Horse Drawn Hearse is unmistakably the sound of Gnaw Their Tongues. It´s eerie experimental/ drone black metal, with unpleasant samples of screams and mad talking to accompany the dark music. The music is slow and heavy and almost cinematic at times. The vocals ( Tortured raspy screams) are low in the mix and work more as an extra instrument than regular vocals. The EP starts with the extremely heavy and repetitive The Behemoth Crawls Ashore. Repetitive in this case should not be interpreted as anything bad though. The repetitive nature of the music only enhance the eerie claustrophobic and unpleasant atmosphere in the song. The repetitive drone is overdone a bit in the first half of Horse Drawn Hearse, but the second half of that song is great material. Another Study in Bleakness and Despair is another great track. Quite chaotic to the ear, but after a few spins the details begin to unfold.

The production is filthy, noisy and raw yet detailed and greatly enjoyable.

Mories one-man army has yet again proven that he is without a doubt one of the most creative forces on the more experimental part of the extreme metal scene at the moment. All his releases hold a very high quality level and to top it off he makes unique music, that stands out from the rest of the pack. Horse Drawn Hearse deserves a 3.5 star rating. Maybe a 4 star rating is more deserved but I´m hesitant because of the occasinal monotone part, so for now it´s a 3.5 star rating.