MORGUE – Herald the Dawn

RELEASE YEAR: 2026
BAND URL: https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/herald-the-dawn

These twisted and talented chaps from France blew yours truly away – quite literally, that is – when they unleashed the raging sonic tempest titled Close to Complete Darkness two years ago. Their track record is impressive in general, but their new offering marks a high point in their career and surpasses everything of theirs that came before it.

Herald the Dawn is nothing short of a statement of intent and sees the duo on splendid form with respect to displaying superior compositional skills and ensuring that every idea thrown into the hellish mix carries purpose and meaning. The great thing about Morgue is that they make each riff, vocal phrase, and drum beat count, which is to say that nothing is ever superfluous and that an aggressive and fierce sense of conviction courses through every nook and cranny of this perfectly varied slice of memorable death metal. The album is arguably a little more epic-sounding than its predecessor, as evidenced and exemplified by the stunning “Obedient to No Will,” but it also incorporates traits and influences from thrash and doom metal rather superbly, thereby widening the musical palette a bit and making their vicious, horror-filled tunes even more engaging. It all ends in a blaze of ominous atmospheres and lethal metal pyrotechnics by means of the rumbling beast of a song named “The Deserted Garden of Eden,” and the only thing that appears rational or logical is to press play once again simply because you know that what you have just witnessed is something rather special.