MORNE
Engraved With Pain METAL BLADE
Darkthrone-endorsed postmetallers get their time to shine
After thriving in the underground for almost two decades – not to mention having their logo immortalised on the cover of Darkthrone’s Circle The Wagons – this Boston postmetal/sludge quartet have been snapped up by Metal Blade for their fifth full-length. Clocking in at a relatively streamlined 41 minutes, it still retains the windswept, cinematic quality that’s made their music so endearing. Check out the way Memories Like Stone builds steadily from twinkling atmospheric soundscapes into churning doom riffs, before some scorching classic rock leads erupt out of the mire. Morne certainly aren’t your average post-metal band. There’s a robust, crusty vitriol running throughout this album that recalls Amebix at their most aggressive, without compromising the band’s subtler, more atmospheric tendencies, making for their most refined and powerful outing yet.