Vehemency When reading the promo text that proclaims of Teloch’s debut album Morbid Prayer that ”Do not expect ”typical” Finnish Black Metal from this album”, I don’t think the text could be more misleading: Morbid Prayer is Finnish Black Metal to the bone. Influences of e.g. Baptism and Satanic Warmaster shine through, not to even mention all the Behexen on ”Lifeless Voyage”, but this doesn’t necessarily mean anything negative.

Morbid Prayer is a 45-minute manifestation of dark, occult black metal. Sinister riffing - with good interplay between the two guitarists - is continuous in various speeds, mostly residing in mid-tempo wanderings, the drummer backing up with quite accurate beats and blastings. Songs like ”Thy Horrid Name” build up to great climaxes but here also lies one of Morbid Prayer’s glitches: the production. It is somewhat weak, lacking punch in all departments, thus the album is - production-wise - as palely dark as the front cover art. Hence all the compositions on the album don’t manage to rise to their full potential.

Teloch’s debut is a good listen, but rarely rises its head enough to really impress. This is mostly due to the dull production and perhaps a bit too blatant similarities to the previously mentioned bands. Odivm’s deathly vocals are a good feature and so are the lyrics (that are fortunately printed in the booklet). Here’s hoping that Teloch’s second assault has learned from the mistakes of the previous.