Keijo Niinimaa, the vocalist behind Finland’s grindcore group Rotten Sound, has taken his talents to a new sludge/doom metal project. Morbid Evils have released their debut album In Hate With the Burning World and it is an absolute juggernaut. This is a pure heavyweight that demands your attention.

From beginning to end the album drags the listener through pure destruction and never lets up. With the opening track ‘Cruel’ you’re treated to a steady build-up that leads into a crushing riff that could be paired with the stomping of elephants marching. About halfway through the track, the drone aspect picks up a bit of a groove making it very difficult to keep your head from moving in pace.

The next track ‘Crippled’ has more of a haunting groove to it, yet the brutality remains. This groove showcases the freshness of this album, keeping it from becoming just another boring and uninteresting doom album laden with just a simple chugging riff. My favorite track, and unfortunately the shortest of the album, would be ‘South of Hell’. Named rightly so this album will drag you down to the bowels and even further than where the sinners dwell.

In Hate With the Burning World is one hell of a debut release. Dare I say even better than all material Niinimaa created with Rotten Sound? I feel unfortunate that they ended up with the name Morbid Evils, as their sound to me really represents a creature such as a Mastodon or Behemoth. Recently it feels that doom metal has been gaining more of a following, and this album will just strengthen that interest and lust for the sound of dismemberment.

8.0/10

DEREK RIX