By Bona Pjarren
Baroque-influenced, post-black metal duo Mortal Thrall was forged in September 2020 by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Todd Harris (ex-Oubliette, Battle Path). Spontaneously conceptualized, written, and recorded over lockdown, the press release describes ‘A Path To Fire’ as “an emotive fresco of intertwining guitar lines, stunning chord progressions, passionate vocals, textural synth, and martial drumming which evolved from Harris’ obsession with Renaissance paintings”. Sounds interesting so far…
Thematically set in the last days of the Spanish Inquisition, the album tells the story of one of the final victims, Maria de los Dolores Lopez, murdered by the church for “heresy” and whose story was buried by the Vatican until the early 1990s. Harris felt compelled to pay tribute to her horrendous fate, seeing disturbing parallels in the still-pervading influence and authority of religious power in the modern world which has been a personal point of contention throughout his life as a gay man. Notes Harris, “considering the hell she was put through, she was an absolute pillar of strength in the face of such extreme adversity. It paralleled for me many of the same things that women, people of color, and the LGBTQIA+ community deal with today. She was courageous and outspoken in a very dangerous period and refused to be silenced in her beliefs, even though they were highly unorthodox. I’ll let the lyrics
fill in the details, but I hope this album will resonate for anyone who feels beat down by society”.
The opening track is a beautiful picked acoustic guitar track called ‘Flames (Interpolation)’. It is a short introductory track with a baroque feel that slowly disintegrates as the track nears completion. It’s bold and weirdly clever. ‘A Path To Fire’ is a dark grungy track punctuated by blast beats. Extreme vocals are growled out over the musical maelstrom. There are some nice orchestral sections that help break the song up and the overall composition is surprisingly memorable, achieving as it does a delicate balance between light and shade.
‘Take The Cold’ has some synth driven interesting rhythms that sandwich this song and make it stand out as something a bit different. Todd Harris’ growling vocal and trem-picked guitar add a frantic feel to the overall heaviness to the middle section of this piece. ‘The Calling’ is straight into it with no messing, heavy and intense, it blasts out. The drop is much needed as the track is so intense. I did feel that the vocal could have been very slightly more to the forefront in the mix, but this is a very minor criticism.
‘Passion Made A Weapon’ continues in the same heavy driving post black metal style of the previous track before slowing into something more grove driven. Again there is a nice drop with some rather pleasant ambient and acoustic ideas.
‘Twelve Long Years’ is the next track and takes a slightly different approach with its ambient guitar picked intro as a prelude to a heavier chorded section. It then launches into the signature intense onslaught of black metal mayhem. The extreme vocals sound like they have some kind of layered harmony track. The piece has some nice orchestration to some of its heavy sections and there is a descent sounding breakdown at the end.
‘One Soul, One Life’ reverts to the fierce black metal style assault mixed with more thoughtful but still heavy sections. Again there is a pleasing acoustic drop to give a break from the onslaught of the main body of the song. ‘Flames Filled The Sky’ has a more measured but still heavy intro to it, before launching into the expected black metal maelstrom. Again there is the usual acoustic drop before again picking up the pace. There is however some quite clever orchestrated parts thanks to Christopher Scott Davies’ keyboard work that really salvage this piece.
‘A Path To Fire’ has a lot to recommend it as an album. It is dark, brooding and heavy. It is an assault on the senses in true black metal form. You could argue that it is a bit formulaic in its construction, but the subtle use of keyboard really helps to sell the artistic concept of this album. If you are into black metal, give it a try.
- ‘A Path To Fire’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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