Returning two decades after their last album, Wisconsin’s premier contribution to the death metal story sound like they did plenty of preparatory stretching before they hit the studio.
Wounds Deeper Than Time taps into the essence of what made earlier records like Dying Remains and As Humanity Fades so beloved among underground aficionados, with its ferocious blend of mid-paced muscle, elegant technicality and morbid undercurrents. If anything, the band’s songwriting has improved; Hating Life is a simply brilliant death metal song that could easily have been penned 20 years ago, but while many contemporary bands ape the sonic aesthetics of the 90s, Morta Skuld have struck a more principled balance, embracing modern production while never losing that core, old-school atmosphere. The title track is another gem, barrelling along like Bolt Thrower in their prime before descending into the hellish flames via riffs evil enough to give Kerry King the cold sweats.
A very successful comeback.
