THE BEAST

Hailing from the black metal hotbed of Finland, Morketida continue to drive deeply into their native land's most mystical depths. During the summer of 2018, the band released their striking debut album, Panphage Mysticism, through Werewolf and its effect was instantaneous: Whereas so many nowadays Finnish black metal bands derive influence from the cryogenic fury of the Satanic Warmaster axis or the paradigmatic bestiality of early Beherit, Morketida here returned to the woodland wonder of such oft-overlooked hordes of Noenum, Vritra, and Blood Red Fog's most desolate musings. By no means plagiarists, the young mavericks similarly invoked a ghostly grimness, wandering within the night to thick-yet-spacious swells of ripped-raw guitar and foggy organ. Now, they continue that effortless momentum with the four-song Traveler of the Untouched Voids.
 

Totaling 22 minutes in length but by no means any less vast because of it - quite the opposite, in fact - Traveler of the Untouched Voids sees Morketida travel further down their own, ever-more-idiosyncratic path. Still largely downtempo but unafraid to kick into hypnotic blasting, here do they explore swampier and more eldritch terrain, heightening the beyond-the-shade atmosphere ever more through patient, plaintive melodies and more rugged expressions thereof. The organ of yore has been replaced by ocassional touches of mystical synth in a most early '90s manner, while the vocals similarly plumb stouter depths. If anything, one could say that Morketida are nodding more toward an ancient Eastern European expression or one less-than-tangentially removed from the contemporaneous Hellenic scene. Either way, their exploration of the unknown continues with Traveler of the Untouched Voids...