Morbikon – Lost Within the Astral Crypts

By Owlswald

When he’s not dealing in the Slime and Punishment of Municipal Waste or pissing off the neighbors with Iron Reagan, axe-wielder Phil “Landphil” Hall channels his focus into Morbikon. Formed in 2020, Hall’s black metal side-project earned recognition from AMG Industries when Ferox highlighted the supergroup’s debut, Ov Mournful Twilight, as his surprise record of 2022. Rooted in all things kvlt and trve, the album’s second wave frostbitten anthems plunged into the remnants of burned churches and stale corpse paint, resulting in “eight meloblack rippers calibrated to bring winter to your soul and whiplash to your neck.” Now, Morbikon’s sophomore LP finds Hall honing his homage to the black arts, promising to descend his creation into a deeper, more sepulchral state. Ignite your torch and prepare the Necronomicon—it’s time to get Lost Within the Astral Crypts.

Lost Within the Astral Crypts forges the scorched spirit of Ov Mournful Twilight into a leaner, more technical and overwhelmingly black entity. Drawing on the lineup’s pedigree, Morbikon’s collective talent coalesces into an authoritative, and at times downright impressive, synthesis of 90s-influenced blackened thrash. Vocalist Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns (Finntroll, …And Oceans) returns with his characteristic throat-ripping vocals, as furious down-picked riffs and swarming, lightning-quick tremolodic scales consistently anchor the material firmly in the black. Complementing Hall’s stylish fretwork, drummer Pierce Williams (Ænigmatum, ex-Skeletal Remains)—who replaces Dave Witte—adds raw, destructive rhythms with tight rolls and syncopations that are both refreshing and sophisticated. Tracks like “Unending Legions of Baal,” “Masters of Eternal Night” and “Flames that Bind and Shadows Cast” evoke a full-on black metal assault reminiscent of Satyricon or Emperor, complete with pounding double bass and subtle synths, while “Ghoul Infested Mausoleum” and “Heavens that Burn and Eons Divided” push the envelope with airy Wintersun melodicism peppered with thrash savagery.

The necrotic might of Lost Within the Astral Crypts rests in Morbikon’s technical excellence, elevating the album’s eight tracks beyond the seminal Scandinavian sound. Worshipping at the altar of the almighty riff, Hall and company immediately demonstrate their capabilities on “Heavens that Burn and Eons Divided”—an energetic, fun and melodic banger driven by a potent layered tremolo attack, fantasy-toned leads and Williams’ tomb-raiding blasts that promptly underscore Morbikon’s technical ambition. “Ghoul Infested Mausoleum” features the record’s best tremolo riff: a spectral high/low scale progression imbued with nocturnal gravity, bolstered by Williams’ accented beats and Lillmåns’ gnarly shrieks. Shreddy, virtuosic solos on the title track, “Flames that Bind and Shadows Cast” and “Numeric Portal Ascendency” push Lost Within the Astral Crypts past the point of a stereotypical tremolo-fest, while strategic thrash and death explorations (such as the opening passage of “Flames that Bind and Shadows Cast”) help maintain listener interest before regrounding the album’s dark, aggressive roots.

Given Morbikon’s stellar execution and the album’s efficient 43-minute runtime—with little bloat to be found—any criticism must instead focus on Lost Within the Astral Crypts’ songwriting. “Masters of Eternal Night” is a serviceable track, but often clings too tightly to classic Scandinavian conventions (even adopting a familiar Mayhem-like conclusion), rendering it less engaging than the album’s superior cuts. “Sworn to the Beheaded King” briefly adopts a more aggressive, in-your-face death metal spirit at its midpoint, including a tasteful guitar solo. Yet, these highlights can’t mask the track’s conventionality as it quickly retreats to familiar black metal terrain. Although the monolithic presence of Lost Within the Astral Crypts occasionally falters in favor of genre conventions, stagnant sections (“Ghoul Infested Mausoleum,” “Flames that Bind and Shadows Cast”) and even some superfluous wankery (“Lost Within the Astral Crypts”), the underlying songwriting remains solid, with engaging riffs and hooks that are strong enough to largely sustain the album’s momentum.

Lost Within the Astral Crypts is a worthy reinvention of a well-trodden sound. While the album is certainly not groundbreaking—nor is it trying to be—it demonstrates top-notch musical dexterity and delivers exceptionally well-executed material that is aggressive, dark and steeped in 90s nostalgia. At its weakest, Lost Within the Astral Crypts serves as a grim invitation to exhume those second-wave classics from your collection; at its strongest, it stands as a fun, rock-solid blackened thrash record that advances and validates Hall’s creative vision, confirming Morbikon’s vast potential.

Rating: Good
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Tankcrimes
Websites: instagram.com/morbikon | facebook.com/morbikon
Releases Worldwide: November 21st, 2025

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Ghoul Announce ‘Weapons Of Mosh Destruction 666 Tour 2025’
Support will be provided by No/Mas and Spiter. Ghoul Announce ‘Weapons Of Mosh Destruction 666 Tour 2025’ .

https://www.metalsucks.net/2025/07/22/ghoul-announce-weapons-of-mosh-destruction-666-tour-2025/

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Destination Extinction

https://blabbermouth.net/reviews/destination-extinction

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Necrot – Lifeless Birth Review

By Eldritch Elitist

When it comes to the new school of old school death metal, Necrot occupies a refreshing niche. By that, I mean that they don’t much fall into a specific niche at all. None too interested in the bleeding edge of the style and similarly distant from its grimiest, slimiest depths, Necrot stands alone, simply wanting to rock. 2020’s Mortal has aged remarkably well in its own no-frills marinade, packed with catchy riffage that I still recall with clarity despite years since my last visit. Of course, I might not have spent years away had it been a more distinct offering. Necrot is one of those acts that effortlessly coasts on charm and raw talent, rarely if ever hinting at grand ambitions. It came as a pleasant surprise, then, that Lifeless Birth sees Necrot in a state of chrysalitic emergence. I don’t believe their final form has taken full shape, but Lifeless Birth is nonetheless a vital evolutionary step.

Not that you need to care about any of that to appreciate Lifeless Birth. This is still a Necrot record in all its catchy, groove-oriented goodness. Yet even at its most straightforward, Necrot exercises a newfound obsession with throwing rhythmic curveballs. Riffs often begin life via standard death metal note progressions before unraveling into unexpected progressive tangents, often invoking the deceptive technicality of Cannibal Corpse’s best efforts. These riff structures serve as microcosms of Lifeless Birth’s greatest songwriting feats. From “Drill the Skull” onwards, these compositions pivot well outside traditional death metal in their back halves. “Winds of Hell” stealthily stacks blackened riffs before exploding into harmonized black metal catharsis and “The Curse” deals in burly gallops that echo Amon Amarth. These experimental ventures are often accompanied by unprecedented levels of major key melodics, resulting in a death metal record that feels bolder than most, especially because it isn’t obsessed with sounding mean for its entire runtime.

The only thing holding Lifeless Birth back from feeling utterly revelatory is that Necrot often feels withholding during its best moments. The album’s genre-bending heights are often short-lived, reverting to standard death metal fare before the band can properly stretch their experimental legs. This half-commitment ultimately invokes not incompetence but obligation, an acknowledgement by Necrot that they are not abandoning their roots, even if Lifeless Birth would be a better record without self-imposed restraints. To be clear, Lifeless Birth still comes across as impassioned, world-class death metal throughout, even if its purest moments never quite reach the heights of, say, “Sinister Will”1 from Mortal. Lifeless Birth’s first three tracks in general feel a touch repetitive, but I never once thought of skipping them to rush to my favorite bits.

Outside of its boldest passages, Lifeless Birth still feels iterative in Necrot’s catalog thanks to its guitar solos, which have received a bluesy melodic overhaul. These solos are such a marked departure for Necrot that I was legitimately surprised to find that their implementation was not accompanied by a line-up change. What guitarists Luca Indrio and Sonny Reinhardt have crafted here are unquestionably some of my favorite solos in the realm of old school death metal, with the extended dueling harmonies of “Dead Memories” in particular sounding more akin to power metal in their exuberant tone. Moments like these could have shone with radiance were the album’s production similarly ambitious, but Lifeless Birth’s engineering comes across as a fairly standard interpretation of the modern OSDM sound. It’s a good-sounding record, to be sure, but its soundscape feels a bit obvious and lacking in depth.

Perhaps all these new melodic and genre-hopping tricks shouldn’t come as a surprise. Necrot has always bolstered a sort of pop-like accessibility and addictiveness – relative to death metal, that is – and Lifeless Birth’s melodic focus should prove even more appealing to all but the staunchest death metal purists. I only hope that Necrot’s next outing finds them venturing more frequently into uncharted tonal territory. Lykathea Aflame should have been the band that blew the doors off the notion that death metal has to sound deathly serious at all times, but we’re nearly twenty-five years on from Elvenefris, and many of the most popular bands in the genre feel regressive for nostalgia’s sake. With Lifeless Birth, Necrot is showing a willingness to be an exception to this rule with the strongest identity the band has ever had.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Tankcrimes Official | Bandcamp
Websites: necrot.bandcamp.com/music | facebook.com/cyclesofpain
Releases Worldwide: April 12th, 2024

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