Band:	Mortiferum
Album:	Preserved In Torment
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	November 2021

01. Eternal Procession
02. Incubus Of Bloodstained Visions
03. Seraphic Extinction
04. Exhumed From Mortal Spheres
05. Caudex Of Flesh
06. Mephitis Of Disease

Doomy death's murk is something that has permeated OSDM for a long while now. It doesn't seem to stop. It doesn't need to. Not if you have bands like Mortiferum.

I have a sort of hate/love relationship with old school death metal. I call it "old school" because a lot of it can trace its lineage directly to either Entombed, Bolt Thrower, or Incantation (or others). But in truth I find myself listening to more newer OSDM records than going back to the actual records that spawned them. Herein lies the conflict: I enjoy most of it, it makes me do that face you make when you hear a filthy riff, but it all starts to blend in my memory. Having reviewed a lot of it, I found that I was struggling to use different wording for each of them. I even self imposed a moratorium on reviewing the genre last year. Well, even if I still self-imposed that, I'd have to break it for a new Mortiferum album. Even if I'd find myself reusing words.

I first found out about Mortiferum through their previous album, 2019's Disgorged From Psychotic Depths, an album that instantly felt like a death/doom classic, as much as an album can become a classic in this rapidly changing environment. The band found a home in Profound Lore Records, so they're in good company. Now when it comes to Preserved In Torment, I do feel some changes compared to its predecessor, namely it leans a bit more on the death side, with shorter songs and more up-tempo passages. The pace moves pretty solidly from the usual doom death to pure pummeling death. The biggest emphasis is on the atmosphere, but this doesn't leave it feeling one-dimensional and not focused on the actual melodies. As is the case: riffs and absurdly low growls.

And with such a big emphasis on atmosphere, the production job perfectly creates that immersion into lo-fi murky fields of desolation. This makes the moments where they seep into more straight-forward death metal still have a distinctive doom death flair, and the blast beats create an even bigger contrast. Overall, this also shows why these albums work so well in the 35-45 minutes runtime range, because they don't waste your time and the impact feels more focused. And though most albums in this genre would be pretty cool as concise and murky packages, what sets Preserved In Torment apart is its balls-to-the-walls straight-forwardness and willingness to just get to the point.

Back when I had self-imposed that moratorium, I said I would only break it when Charnel Altar would release an album. Well, now they are. So I'm not sure how my reviewing of OSDM would continue afterwards. But what I don't have any doubts for is that, with bands like Mortiferum, the genre is still pretty vital.