Band:	Mortal Form
Album:	Taste The Blood
Style:	Melodic death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	January 16, 2009
A review by:	Bas

01. The Uprising
02. From Ape To Christ
03. Besiege
04. Construction Of Deconstruction
05. Territorial
06. King Of Gauls
07. Blasphemer
08. Guts In The Gutter
09. Taste The Blood
10. Screwed

Mortal Form already exist since 1994, released their debut in 2001 and now after 7 years finally delivered their second album via the Italian label My Kingdom Music. After shoving this CD into my PC, copying all the tracks into my iTunes player and starting the first track, "The Uprising", my first though was "wow, this band must fucking slay live". That's what I still think, this is exactly the type of music which'd leave me no choice but banging my head off of my shoulders. However this review is about what they do in the studio, so let's get down to business.

On "Taste Of Blood" the band perfectly blends their Dutch death metal with thrash metal and a solid portion of melodic heavy metal guitar parts. In general the mix works really good, although perhaps this album could have done with a bit less melodic parts, "Construction Of Deconstruction" for example would clearly have been a better track if the guitars had some more oomph behind them. It's the more brutal thrash-injected death metal songs ("Blasphemer" for example) where Mortal Form can really show what they're capable of.

The drumming is usually mid-paced, leaning towards fast-paced sometimes and the whole music is supported by a very strong bass guitar sound. Singing is delivered in fast and brutal death metal grunts and the guitars alternate between heavy death or thrash metal riffing and melodic heavy metal leads. There are enough melodic solos around as well, perhaps too much actually, as they tend to break down the pace of the album. Some of the songs are pretty technical as well, although others aren't very technical at all, a shame really, as this band obviously knows how to get the job done.

This Dutch band managed to create a pretty solid album. It has a few things that could be better (like I said, I would have preferred it to be a bit heavier) but is still a very convincing metal CD and will definitely find its way into my music-player every once in a while. Recommended to fans of death/thrash crossovers who don't need their music to be heavy as fuck all the time and to fans of melodic death metal who don't mind some more brutal or thrashy chunks in their music.

Favourite track: Blasphemer. Least favourite track: Taste Of Blood