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Album Review – +MROME+ / Barbaric Values (2022)

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This unrelenting Polish group returns with a new concept album based upon the moral and ethical conflict between socially imposed conditions and primordial nature of man.

Born in 1995, dead in 2002 and evoked in 2009, always focusing on the creative process and concepts behind the music, lyrics and graphics, Andrychów, Poland-based Black/Death Metal studio project +MROME+ is back into the battlefield with a new concept album, entitled Barbaric Values, following up on their 2016 album Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell and on their 2019 album Leech Ghetto. Displaying a sick artwork by Ataman Tolovy (featuring a trashart sculpture by Krzysztof Kadłubowski), Barbaric Values is based upon the moral and ethical conflict between socially imposed conditions and primordial nature of man, with a distinctive dark and negative vibe being channeled into a new musical direction again by Key V on vocals and guitar, LV’s on bass, and P on drums.

The sinister beats by P ignite the opening tune Heart of Hearts, evolving into an experimental beast by the trio where Key V is on fire with his riffage supported by the metallic bass by LV’s. Put differently, it’s like a heavier version of Mastodon with an European twist, and they keep hammering their sonic weapons mercilessly in Inviting Birds, sounding visceral, raw and electrifying from start to finish with Key V roaring the song’s acid words nonstop, resulting in a solid hybrid of Black, Death and Experimental Metal. Another devilish, somber intro grows in intensity until the gnarls and guitars by Key V penetrate deep inside your psyche in Vexierkasten, with LV’s and P making your head tremble with their infernal kitchen; whereas razor-edged riffs permeate the air in Mama, a galloping tune led by the neck-breaking drums by P exhaling groove, obscurity and obviously metal, inviting us all for a wicked music voyage together with those Polish rockers.

Srebrne szlaki, which features guest vocals by Ataman Tolovy and lyrics taken from Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (with Polish translation by Anna Warso and Wojciech Góralczyk, Kultura Gniewu 2018), is even more experimental and idiosyncratic than its predecessors, exploding into an evil extravaganza spearheaded by the wicked riffs by Key V, while Penis Fencing carries a weird name for a song that keeps the album at a high level of acidity and dementia, with P dictating the song’s pace together with LV’s and his progressive bass lines. Then futuristic sounds and tones kick off their second to last experiment titled Balance of Power, before the trio comes ripping once again with their Stoner Metal-infused sonority. Moreover, Key V and LV’s are in total and absolute sync until the very last second. Lastly, the trio is ready to surprise us all once again in The Torun Horse, a melancholic instrumental tune that will bring darkness to your damned soul, featuring music based on Béla Tarr’s A torinói ló soundtrack by Mihály Vig.

It’s impressive how +MROME+ are capable of reinventing themselves with each one of their releases without selling out or sounding cheesy at all; quite the contrary, the evolution in their music is a thing of beauty, and Barbaric Values is the perfect depiction of their skills and their passion for heavy music, never afraid of pushing the boundaries and trying new things in their career. Hence, don’t forget to stream all of their creations on Spotify, and to grab your copy of their newest album from BandCamp, from Merch.is or from Apple Music, saying FUCK YOU to messengers of dread and obedience just like the guys from +MROME+ themselves like to do on a daily basis in the name of good and meaningful music.

Best moments of the album: Heart of Hearts, Mama and Srebrne szlaki.

Worst moments of the album: Penis Fencing.

Released in 2022 NRA

Track listing
1. Heart of Hearts 5:04
2. Inviting Birds 5:09
3. Vexierkasten 6:05
4. Mama 5:25
5. Srebrne szlaki 7:23
6. Penis Fencing 5:20
7. Balance of Power 6:12
8. The Torun Horse 6:42

Band members
Key V – vocals, guitar
LV’s – bass
P – drums

Guest musician
Ataman Tolovy – vocals on “Srebrne szlaki”

Album Review – +MROME+ / Leech Ghetto (2019)

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Back from the very depths of the underworld, this unrelenting Polish entity is ready to crush our senses once again with their unique and scorching fusion of Black and Death Metal.

Poland’s own Black and Death Metal entity +MROME+ is back from the very depths of the underworld once again to crush our senses with the unique and scorching music found in their brand new album, curiously entitled Leech Ghetto. Furthermore, as already expected (or not), the new opus by +MROME+, who are now a trio with the addition of bassist LV’s, joining lead singer and guitarist Key V and drummer P in their quest for heavy music, is completely different from their 2016 album Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell, yet still maintaining the band’s core essence and heaviness intact, working as a new start and keeping the band’s unpredictability as high as possible just the way we like it. Add to all that the wicked guest vocals by Ataman Tolovy (from Polish Experimental Black Metal band Túrin Turambar) in a couple of songs, and there you have an excellent DYI album highly recommended for anyone in pursuit of innovative and obscure metal music.

And Key V’s guitar ignites the engines of the opening track titled The Rogue, a mid-tempo, dark tune perfect for breaking your neck headbanging, also presenting a very welcome thrashing twist that makes it truly incendiary. Then ominous riffs and beats permeate the air in Born Old, which sounds like a hybrid of the music by Obituary, Exodus and Celtic Frost, just to name a few (and to show you how insane it sounds), with P being very precise with his drums, delivering aggressiveness and intricacy and, therefore, being tailored for fans of 80’s and 90’s heavy music; whereas in Anti-Ant Entante the band ventures through more rockin’ lands, with Key V’s raspy roars and razor-edged riffs piercing your soul mercilessly while LV’s and P keep the ambience thunderous with their respective bass and drums.

Led by LV’s metallic bass, The City of Opax offers our ears a significantly different start from all previous songs, sounding melancholic and grim and evolving into a very introspective tune, proving once again how wide the band’s range is when crafting their music. Featuring the aforementioned Ataman Tolovy on guest vocals, the stylish Coffin Nail is a feast of demented sounds as if Faith No More went Death or Thrash Metal, showcasing steady beats, wicked gnarls and a feeling of insanity as its main ingredients, and the trio continues to extract Stygian sounds form their instruments in Detroit Daze, especially LV’s with his groovy jabs, bringing elements from Progressive Metal to their already multi-layered music. Not only that, all of its changes and variations turn it into a very pleasant musical journey that will certainly smash your mind in the best way possible.

Ataman Tolovy returns in Twarz Niezawisła (“an independent face” from Polish), perhaps the most obscure and atmospheric of all songs, blending the thunder from Doom Metal with alternative and experimental music, followed by Bellies Grow, and let me tell you that the second to last blast of insanity by +MROME+ sounds and feels it was taken straight from the 80’s while having a futuristic touch at the same time, as if The Misfits and Motörhead had a bastard son. Do you understand now how multi-layered their music is? Anyway, Key V’s riffs dictate the rhythm in this distinguished tune, while P doesn’t stop pounding his drums for our total delight. And LV’s and his rumbling bass kick off the closing tune Primordial Soup, bringing forward slashing guitars, in-your-face, straightforward beats and aggressive vocals, flowing darkly until its venomous ending. Can this song be added to the official soundtrack of a Tarantino movie, please?

In a nutshell, +MROME+’s Leech Ghetto, which will really soon (aka later this week) be available on Spotify for a full listen and on the band’s own BandCamp page for purchase, continues to pave the band’s path of madness while sounding fresh and distinct from their previous releases as already mentioned, leaving us all disoriented and eager for more of their music in the coming years. We just can’t predict at all what Key V and his bandmates have in mind for their next album, but again that’s the beauty of their music and I truly hope they never change while they keep always changing (if that makes any sense to you).

Best moments of the album: The Rogue, Coffin Nail and Detroit Daze.

Worst moments of the album: None.

Released in 2019 NRA

Track listing
1. The Rogue 5:11
2. Born Old 4:22
3. Anti-Ant Entante 3:56
4. The City of Opax 4:30
5. Coffin Nail 3:47
6. Detroit Daze 3:31
7. Twarz Niezawisła 3:56
8. Bellies Grow 4:03
9. Primordial Soup 5:38

Band members
Key V – vocals, guitar
LV’s – bass
P – drums

Guest musician
Ataman Tolovy – guest vocals on “Coffin Nail” and “Twarz Niezawisła”

Album Review – +MROME+ / Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell (2016)

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If you’re eagerly looking for truly independent music in the world of Heavy Metal, this idiosyncratic Polish project will satisfy your craving with their fresh and unorthodox experimentations.

Rating5

mrome_ncotrohThe last review of the year is the epitome of independent metal, something we at The Headbanging Moose truly love to support, being absolutely raw, anti-mainstream, not interested in promoting band members and not interested in touring at all. Founded in the now far, far away year of 1995 by a group of teenage friends in the city of Andrychów, located in Southern Poland,  Death/Black Metal project +MROME+ was reborn in 2009 after almost a decade of silence, finally releasing as a duo now in 2016 the idiosyncratic album Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell.

+MROME+ produce their music in their own primitive studio in complete isolation from the local scene, with their only principle being that every new recording is a new start for the band, a new stage, keeping things as different and interesting as possible, and they do that by not labeling their music nor sticking to a predetermined formula. If you take a listen at their collection of demos from 1997 to 1999 baptized as The Basement Sophisma, you’ll see how versatile +MROME+ are, ranging from devilish extreme music to unique cover version for non-metal classics such as Faith No More’s “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies”, and in Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell the band continues with their heavy experimentations, always pushing their creative boundaries further and further.

When the opening track Colors begins, you’ll be facing a crossover of Death, Sludge and Progressive Metal, with its bass lines rumbling in your face, while Key V transpires aggressiveness through his harsh vocals and P provides the right amount of heaviness and intricacy behind his drums. Then +MROME+ turn up the heat and blast a dark and vile Death Metal composition titled Crush the Moon, sounding amazingly underground and powerful. It has an old school punch thanks to its catchy chorus and melodious, angry guitars, being in my opinion one of the best songs of the whole album. And in Migration Cult we have a great fusion of Death Metal and Rock N’ Roll, with its flammable Thrash Metal riffs complementing Key V’s deranged representation of the song’s wicked lyrics (“Marching far south from Eden / There is still something what push us on / Missing primal fixations / Will we abandon the code / The Holy Fuck”).

How the Gods Kill is an awesome tribute to one of the most eccentric musicians of all time, the one and only Danzig, keeping up with the obscurity of the original version with the low-tuned and menacing sound of bass guitar paving the path for an explosion of evil Heavy Metal. Following that superb cover song, Trust brings forward more of the band’s uproarious Death Metal with Key V and P delivering straightforward heavy music to our ears in a compelling way, whereas Generation Anthem is heavy and distorted music from the pits of Hell. Furthermore, the duo seems to love those menacing mid-tempo songs, firing blazing riffs and fierce beats nonstop. But just when you think the band is going to stick to some sort of formula they fire Piss & Laugh, showcasing a somber rhythm inspired by Dark Metal with the Blackened Doom guitars and the deep gnarls by Key V enhancing its damned atmosphere. At this point of the album, you’ll realize that calling +MROME+ just as Death or Black Metal is an understatement of their musical range and capabilities.

mromeOnce again bursting poetry and madness through the lyrics (“Monstrous iron worms / Feeding on fire / And flash / Choke the ground / March against the dawn / East from nest of crow / Days of hunger / Lions hunt”), Locust Follows Word presents a berserk intro followed by more thunderous bass lines and a grumpy attitude, with all additional elements in the background helping in strengthening the musicality considerably. The second to last blast of underground metal by this interesting project, titled Magister Figurae Morte, will kick you in the face with its pounding drums and energetic riffs in this solid display of ruthless metal from darkness, before The Arsonist closes the album majestically, with Key V impersonating the arsonist himself by setting fire to the musicality with his growls and riffs. In addition, P accelerates his beats to a traditional Black Metal style, generating a high-end feast of hellish music with a climatic ending.

+MROME+ do not have a Facebook page, a Twitter account or any other type of social media. As previously mentioned, it’s all about their music and the concept behind it, which means all things +MROME+ are summarized to their BandCamp page in the form of heavy music, with Noetic Collision on the Roof of Hell being their newest sonic experiment, but not their ultimate one at all. Fans of truly underground metal will hear more about +MROME+ in a not-so-distant future for sure, as they’re already recording Roi-de-Rats, their next full-length opus. Well, I’m already eager to see what Key V, P and the band’s original bassist (who has just rejoined the project after all these years) will offer from their arsenal of extreme and primeval music.

Best moments of the album: Crush the Moon, How the Gods Kill and The Arsonist.

Worst moments of the album: Generation Anthem.

Released in 2016 Independent

Track listing
1. Colors 4:03
2. Crush the Moon 4:33
3. Migration Cult 3:31
4. How the Gods Kill (Danzig cover) 5:46
5. Trust 4:09
6. Generation Anthem 3:45
7. Piss & Laugh 4:24
8. Locust Follows Word 3:48
9. Magister Figurae Morte 4:32
10. The Arsonist 6:18

Band members
Key V – vocals, guitars
P – drums