Drawing the audience in with powerful guitars, persistent drums, and headbanging heat, Monde Vide is a testament to how death metal has grown and changed since its inception decades ago. While many have worked with the off tempo approach over the years, it's generally hit or miss as the riffs need to hit right and there needs to be a groove. Slow and swampy is great, but if there's no progress out of the mire, the album suffers and in turn, so does the listener. Mortuaire understand this very well, and make their slower paced, death/doom delight propulsive, moving forward constantly and consistently, but still giving that swampy, tarry essence. That's the key, is that essence is the flavor to this death and not a split personality. In addition to the song structure and arrangement, the production keeps this album moving with its clarity and crispness. Often times bands will achieve their doomy/downer sound at the cost of fidelity, and that's ok if that's what you're going for. Mortuaire, however, want their instruments and riffs to be clean and the highlight, and this is most certainly achieved. Overall, Monde Vide is a great sounding, grooving, headbanging album that plays far quicker than its thirty-six minute runtime.

 

Taking members from Year of No Light, Bombardement, The Great Old Ones, Monarch!, and Faucheuse, Mortuaire came to be in 2021. Two years later came their demo, and two years after that, their debut album (despite being recorded in 2023). Monde Vide is a slice of slow to mid tempo death metal that revels in its doomy essence and groovy presence. Clean as a whistle, listening to this one is a treat for the ears as every instrument is well pronounced and gets plenty of time to shine. Those that prefer deep dives into records, tracking instruments, hearing how they progress, will do well picking this up and throwing it on for a few consecutive spins. A strong debut, we'll definitely be watching for more Mortuaire in the future.