Poland, the land once behind the Iron Curtain. A cauldron for a lot of hate due to political and religious oppression. The waves are still being felt in the music scenes of the country, no matter what age is: The drummer here is 14 years old (and thus Death Angel's record (?) has been smashed; he was around 11 years old when the band recorded their debut EP 'God Delusion' in 2018)! You wouldn't know by listening to this new output, let me tell you. One of the guitarists is 20 years old, while the vocalist is close the fifty years.

Age does not matter, but the music does. The step from the EP to here is absolutely huge. The EP suffered from some shoddy playing and production job, but this album is very, very competent all around. The Filip "Heinrich" Hałucha (of Vesania and Masachist; production work for Behemoth, Hate and Azarath in his CV, among many others) is both clean yet powerful, just what this kind of a death metal album needs. Baalzagoth play blackened death metal, which isn't anything unique from Poland (as isn't the cover artwork), but that really does not matter, because if songs work, then an album should work.

'Morbid Persecutions' begins with an ominous-sounding intro, which soon turns into the first song which has evil chords, double kick drumming, open chords, mid-paced heaviness and devilish leads; things absolutely familiar from Polish death/black metal concoctions. It is a tad slow start, as 'Aborted' presents some fast stuff. At start, that is, as the songs gets slow. There's more tempo changes coming, and somehow it is coming clear, that they do not fit together very well. I cannot find the red thread in many of the songs, to tell the truth, as all these tempo changing tricks start to get bland soon, and riffs and leads sound ordinary, because hey, it is not easy to get noticed among them legendary bands such as Vader, Behemoth, Hate, Azarath and Lost Soul... Maybe Baalzagoth wanted to utilize the tempo fluctuations to create more "own" kind of sound, but it doesn't work, at least for me. The songs aren't engaging, as they cannot stand their own trickiness.

Surely, there are fine parts and bits all over the album (some ambient sounds and voices work finely, by the way), but generally do not save this debut full-length platter from being a rather dull as a whole. At first spins, in the background, I found this interesting and promising, but closer examinations soon showed its defects. Close but no cigar, so bring in the glue and get it fixed. I believe these guys are able to do that.

Rating: 5+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/28/2022 19:07