It can be argued that a large amount of the bands that make up both the black and death metal scenes of the world don’t really put too much time into their craft as a lot of time it can feel lazy, uninspired, and fumbled together like morons in their basements. But, there’s a certain charm to a very DIY feel and if a band can even do a few things right, it can make for a solid listen if you find the right specimen. Coming across Mvrdvrkvltvr, I really didn’t know what I was going to get but it’s with their latest EP that I was pleasantly surprised.

I won’t beat around the bush here – there’s no really fantastic about this EP. Hell, I could just as easily see someone calling it bad for more than fair reasons, but what Mvrdvrkvltvr does here in all of its seven tracks where only four have the material that aren’t just narration-led interludes is simply that not only can be improved upon in the future but it has plenty to enjoy already. The whole of “Mauled by Savagery” has an incredibly simple formula that it sports but it’s an effective one nonetheless: raw and visceral. You can do so much with that, and Mvrdvrkvltvr manages to throw in two tried and true applications of it in the form of the fast, relentless onslaught at first with a quick slow down to something really meaty and powerful that shows us Mvrdvrkvltvr can do more than just one thing in a song. It allows them to avoid becoming boring, and add on top of that plenty of unforgiving riffs and a bloodthirsty approach to it all that’s pulled off quite well and that allows “Mauled by Savagery” to become something quite competent in its own right. By the end, it’s not hard to see how Mvrdvrkvltvr could grow into something much more potent if just given the time, and each track here has plenty of merits to call its own that many purveyors of the underground will surely find loads of enjoyment out of.

This is very much a flawed release, but isn’t every underground effort? That doesn’t mean it’s bad by any means as it does its job and gets the fuck out without wasting any time, and Mvrdvrkvltvr does just enough to keep the listener interesting such that it’s not hard to find something to sink your teeth into. This can easily be dismissed as another release from just another blackened death band in the ocean of others, but “Mauled by Savagery” is, surely, just a hint of what’s to come, and I’m very interested to see what bloodbath is to follow in due time.

LISTEN to “Mauled by Savagery” on Bandcamp here.

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