Review by Chris Pratl on August 29, 2017.

Death metal has seemingly regenerated itself in recent years with a newly emerging underground of bands that are creeping up into the stream like a disgusting John Carpenter fog over a sweltering grassy knoll. What once was a genre spilling over with over-produced, under-talented mall bands aligning themselves with the death metal tag has quickly reinvented itself by disallowing the garbage to stink up the premise and offering new, exciting bands with which to enjoy good music. While not new to the scene, Chicago's Morgue Supplier is back after a long seven-year break, not counting the Bringer of the End single back in '13. The newest offering is aptly titled Morgue Supplier and not a single step is missed.

Chicago has become a mecca for solid underground death metal in the last two decades with Cardiac Arrest, Kommandant, Imperial Savagery, Sons of Famine and Morgue Supplier leading the proverbial charge. For something dirty, savage and brutal, Morgue Supplier adds an element of violent filth to the already scum-filled city streets. What is innately alluring about this band is the combination of truly volatile-sounding music that makes one feel like he or she is a in a mixer of dank air and entrails and the lyrical content that can only be described as 'bleak story-telling' under the guise of three-minute musical paragraphs. Vocalist and main-man Paul Gillis provides a surreptitiously varied range between the low growls of brutal antagonist and the high screams of tortured victim so well that it's hard to get a feel for who is leading whom throughout the album (though I'm sure if you ask the man himself, he'd surely adopt the antagonist's role). Either role is easily enjoyable, and Gillis is a true master at issuing a deadly fatwa in 14-tracks that are ugly and wonderfully disturbing.

So, keeping time with the lyrics, there is a recurring theme in the album of death and its various implements, of course, but each track seems to hold a court all its own in how life's grandest mystery is either obtained or imagined. In short, these short epics are exactly what true death metal is supposed to be. I'm not sure exactly where it all went wrong with some bands dragging on a stale idea through elongated six-to-seven-minute individual snooze fests, but it's refreshing to see a band call upon the glory days of 'in-and-out' to a near-perfect degree. "Destroying a Human" is one of the more battering tracks I've heard in some time, complete with fantastic time changes and a veritable step-by-step into the wondrous world of mutilation. When you hear how you got torn without a drop being spilled, you somehow feel strangely complete and newly cleansed.

It's a difficult feat these days to be able to write engaging, interesting lyrics about everything from casual evisceration to ostracization for one's beliefs, the latter coming from one of my favorite tracks on the album, "Heathen (The Throes of Poison), but the band does that and then some. I've always been a word man, both in writing and ingesting, and while the entire CD is one of tangible versatility, this track stands out for me personally. Couple this with a tremendously intense musical assault that, while 'airy' and thick, never gives way to over-production or outright loudness for its own sake, and you have a classic in the making. The music, both disturbing and tempestuous, affords us the opportunity to place a soundtrack to the various nightmares we keep locked away in our own heads for the betterment of humankind. It's really good to see that the long layoff between releases hasn't dulled the senses or quelled the violence sitting in this bands' collective gullets. 

This CD is limited to 500 copies, so be quick to grab one when it's released next month. Morgue Supplier is, in basic terms, one of the finer elements of modern death metal if your personal choice is a sick, demented foray into all things absurd and hauntingly addictive. Another notch of Chicago pride lies in the well-worn belt of metal music. 

Rating: 9 out of 10

(Originally written for www.metalpslater.com)

Review by Tara on June 16, 2016.

Ugly, unrelenting, fierce and brutal. Those are just a few words one might use when describing Chicago, IL death grinders Morgue Supplier. The band came into existence in 2001 and along with a few lineup changes have managed to churn out a decent amount of material since. This self titled release is Morgue Supplier's second full length album and is sure to turn some heads in the extreme music scene.

It's always important that an album grabs your attention immediately. There's not one track weaker than the other on here, but the stand out would have to be the opener, "Heathen (The Throes of Poison)". It ultimaley captures the entire essence of Morgue Supplier's sound.The right amount of tempo changes combined with the rabid vocal stylings of Paul Gillis and chaotic yet melodic guitar parts are what keep the opening track as well as the entire album feeling fresh upon each listen.

Clocking in at forty minutes, Morgue Supplier's s/t is sure to please new and old school death metallers alike. The songs are very well composed and full of substance, something that seems to be lacking with many of their peers. Grind has always been considered a melting pot of genres and although there's not a whole lot of ground breaking material on this album, Morgue Supplier certainly covers all the bases and does so at full force. It makes for a entertaining and pleasurable listen and since there's a lot to digest, it should hold us over for the band's next release.

Review by Szymon on July 17, 2016.

Along with Magma Gojira pretty uncompromisingly decided to go in a slightly different direction. Courageously, to the despair of some and the joy of others, but this was unavoidable.

Intentionally I avoided any comments associated first with singles, and later with the new album by the French, but my guess is that Magma more than any other Gojira material has the potential to effectively divide the fans (and also the non-fans) into two opposing camps. Not necessarily fighting each other, but probably without having an understanding for their own reasoning and bands arguments. And these were pretty clear. Joseph Duplantier said, even before the release of the album, that people of today don't focus on the complicated epic compositions, so the band decided to put out solid - short, lasting less than three quarters of an hour album with compact compositions, oscillating around four minutes on average . "We all agreed that we need something simpler and more direct, and at the same time less depressive and endowed with new energy," added Mario Duplantier.

To be honest, similar declarations of metal bands usually work for me just like an alarm siren howling right in my ear. I receive them as disguised justification measures to - of course, in the name of art 'developments'-sound mitigation and sudden desire to create compositions of radio-friendly, sweet melody based songs and all that for, what can (and in the premise should) be to the taste of today's blasé audience determining in a matter of seconds whether something is cool or, on the contrary. But previously released music videos for the excellent 'Stranded' and 'Silver', as well as even more outgoing from corporate employ of French 'The Shooting Star' allowed me to believe that Gojira will be different. Magma has proven that this time indeed I was not wrong.

As they conveyed so they did, although the announced shorter duration of tracks does not deviate so much from the earlier albums and after all, two of the compositions are in excess of six minutes. Even more so, the material originated at a time when the brothers Duplantier struggled with the terminal illness of their mother, which was reflected in the lyrics of 'The Shooting Star' or 'Low Lands' for example. There are plenty of depressive moods on the album. Generally, however, a band that's more or less associated with progressive death metal that delightfully nails with its characteristic, massive sound recorded the album that is much simpler and compact and at the same time not that obvious at all and one that demands contemplation. Album based on roughly "song like" structures and very catchy but at the same time, with no apparent desire to please a mass audience. And most importantly, done it all thoughtfully and deliberately, without losing face and without denying specific Gojira atmosphere and groove, which in previously mentioned 'Stranded' achieves new level of awesomeness.

However, groove is not everything, because there are also plenty of new attention grabbing ideas here taken from somewhere in the post-metal area, as well as excellent melodic, slightly mysterious atmosphere, transparency and spatiality of the compositions, which have gained extraordinary lightness and panache. French are playing with these elements masterfully, showing a deep maturity, brought their way and marked by five previous albums and hundreds of live concerts. Opting for new solutions, based not on a violent revolution but rather on intelligent evolution, brothers Duplantier and Co. skillfully avoided stagnation that was faintly announced by the released four years ago "L'Enfant Sauvage". They took a risk and they won.

Magma carries a powerful load of hypnotizing grace with it, and with a greater congeniality simply must get in the tastes of a wider audience. I have no doubt that this is so far the best Gojira album and I hope that it will open even more doors for them and it will further a great and, after all, still-growing career. In their homeland, the French are the stars of the great format - anyone who saw their performance on French soil will confirm that and also fanatical reaction of their audience. It’s time to conquer other markets. You hear grumbling from everywhere that the metal scene of today has no real personalities. Maybe Gojira is one of them? A big step in that direction just became a reality.

Rating: 9 out of 10