undermorphine - Healing (2010)

There is no word I can use to accurately describe this record. Angry, relentless, insane and brutal all spring to mind, but those words all conjure images of dreary brutal Deathcore and the likes, which this isn’t.

What it actually is, I don’t know. No description will really make it seem desirable, but for some unearthly reason, it is – quite frankly - awesome. The whole thing should sound rubbish: The guitar tone is horrible, the drums are too loud and the vocals are... well. Different. Yet the chaotic sound that somehow slides from berzerk verse into thumping breakdown just has a very odd charm about it.

I’ve never heard drumming so angry. It sounds like the snare breaks every time its hit. To describe the vocals to someone who hasn’t heard them, I’d have to say ‘imagine a standard shouty hardcore vocalist who’s just found the bastard who killed his family and his dog. While shooting morphine’. Not, then, one for the faint hearted. Certainly this pummelling wall of aggressive noise is not for everyone. Not for most, I’d say. But if you enjoy psychedelic, somewhat trippy journeys into the realm of insane aggression (so basically, if you’re a psychopath who enjoys hallucinogens), then this will be perfect for you.

It’s not perfect for me, though. There are too many obvious drawbacks to the record for it to receive a perfect score. But it is the first time anything like this has grabbed my attention and kept it. And made me go back for more. Although the record maintains a fairly predictable structure, the sound doesn’t really change, and as I’ve said, the actual sound of the instruments is pretty abominable, I just feel that this is a record that’s just so damn outrageously fun that it doesn’t even matter. The line ‘live fast die young’ in one of the songs is enough to suggest that these guys don’t take themselves too seriously anyway, so why should you?


6/10


1. Morphine: Another Trip Is Beginning
2. Psycho
3. Healing
4. Skyscrapers
5. Just Flaming Chaos Recieve My Fall
6. Burnt By The Dawn
7. Inhaling the Poison
8. Water
9. Burnt By The Dawn (Zombie Vs. Zombie Remix)

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE HERE(uploaded by the band)