Review by Felix on November 14, 2025.

Effective Finns! They need only 15 words for 13 song titles. Exemplary, isn't it? By the way, their musical approach reveals a certain minimalism as well. No gram of fat disfigures the twelve songs plus intro. "Destructive Elite Terror", the self-titled debut of the trio, concentrates on a few but powerful stylistic elements. It is dirty, raw, fast and, naturally, destructive. The highly appreciated old school of Australian black thrash shimmers through the tracks. I would be surprised if Deströyer 666 weren't a big influence for the dudes from Suomi. Two formidable tracks from the A side underline my thesis. The triumphant, rapid guitar lines and the glorious, catchy chorus of "Catacomb" sends sulfurous greetings to a well-known Warslut, while the guitar lines and the devastating drumming of "Strike" lead to the abyss directly. An Australian abyss, of course. Due to whatever reason, I even enjoy the helicopter sounds at the end of this thoroughly malicious piece. So yes, D666 and comparable divisions have inspired the band, while the similarity to Candlemass riffs at the beginning of "Impaler" remains an isolated case. Doom metal is definitely not on the agenda of DET.

Unfortunately, the production does not fully do justice to the material. It lacks pressure and force to a certain extent. Despite the aggressive basic tone, it lends the album an almost introvert character. This fact does not ruin the whole thing, by far not, it is just somewhat regrettable, because otherwise "Destructive Elite Terror" would be a really outstanding debut. The only regular track which does not totally convince is "Possessor" due to a weird guitar line after the verses. Anyway, this is no big deal in view of great songs such as "Vengeance". It kicks off the B side of the yellow vinyl (as always when it comes to Dying Victims Productions, the special edition is filled to the brim with additional gimmicks) and offers a Desaster-like "medieval" melody at the beginning and after the second chorus as well as a furious, straight main part. Moreover, the vocals are aggressive and have this pleasant touch of insanity. By contrast, sometimes the lead vocalist prefers to almost whisper, hiss, or mumble. That's okay, but it reinforces the introvert vibes that this debut spreads from time to time.

You fear changes? Then this first full-length from these dudes is a safe space for you. They are not interested in variations, but in stability and persistence. The band anthem closes an album that indicates narrow-mindedness as well as a remarkable potential within the chosen self-limitation. Even the simple artwork illustrates that the band does not have the focus on individuality as an end in itself. I like this mentality, because I am convinced that too much individuality can ruin a scene, a community and finally the whole society. But philosophical and debatable opinions, at least DET surprise with a bass dominated break in "Annihilation", the first song after the intro. Perhaps we can understand this pretty unusual intermezzo as their unique selling point or something like that… it doesn't matter. In its best moments, their compact debut strikes with dynamic, high tempo and darkness. And believe me, "Destructive Elite Terror" boasts with many good moments.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10

Review by Kubiccy on September 17, 2011.

Yet again, for the fourth time, it is that Lin, Lan and Len come back to Earth in order to fullfil the will of their Master, eternal and powerful Morkobot. Again, he re-infected his faithful subjects’ minds with wild and unbridled stream of unearthly consciousness; this time was materialized in the form of hereby reviewed "MoRbO".

The trilogy, consisting of first three albums of Italian trio, came to the end along with silent and anxious "Morto". Totally unpredictable Morkobot, whose plans elude the perception of all ordinary mortals, changed his face by wearing a mask of absolute severity and passing on plagues and his anger onto his servants. That way "MoRbO" disease hit the Earth with a new dose of heavy, strange and twisted sounds, created only with two bass guitars that are supported by drums (with an exception for 'Mor' with keybord 'guest' parts in it). This time, the music message sounds harder and more aggressive, heavier and much more raw. Morkobot's mind, free from opiates, stopped to follow mysterious cosmic tracks, scattered on the edge of never explored remote black holes. Now, tireless Morkobot is simply (and in a more human way) solidly fucked up (pissed-off?) and through his faithful trio manifests his mood in a pretty baffling manner.

What does it mean in practice? First of all, noisy, sometimes unbearable "MoRbO' attacks the listener with its massive sound of thick overdriven bass and strongly broken drum parts. All subtlety known from the past, playing with silence and disturbing atmosphere have been put in the shade so deeply that it's indeed not that easy to get used to new nature of sullen Morkobot. Here, the band reaches raw core of their music, stripping it of all sorts of ornaments. It seems that sounds served by three Italian 'L' lords are just a portion of cacophonic noise that is kept in tight rein only by divine will of almighty Morkobot. Sonic attack relents (eases off?) in one single moment - in 5th minute of the 9-minutes long aforementioned track, titled 'Mor'. This piece of work most clearly refers to the band's earlier form, and to be honest, in my opinion - this is the daintiest morsel of the whole cake.

The problem with "MoRbO" is its too excessive uniformity and pretty surprising homogeneity of all songs contained. Not only they're similar to each other, but also within the track limit not too much happens, apart from constant attack on drums and guitar strings. Thus, despite the fact you still may look to no avail for melody in trio's works, this album sounds... way more plain than previous ones, more straithforward, but also distincly much less sophisticated.

Instead of sweeping the listener away to phantasmagoric world of Morkobot's divine temper, Lin, Lan and Len decided to lash his head with bludgeon fanatically. This is a novelty, and the chosen direction does not satisfy me entirely. Why? ‘Cause here and there you may find few projects who based their music essence on rhythm section juggling. But, so far, none of them could show off such range of unique ideas and power of creation of such bizarre and mysterious aura. Giving up its undeniable trumps, Morkobot perilously came up to them. Too bad, because as a result, 'MoRbO' does not fully reflect their true potential, does not adequately show real power of this band.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8.5
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 8.5
Originality: 8.5
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.5 out of 10