Liberation = Termination

Mors Principium Est has come to the roadmark of their third release. I am not an expert on the bands history, but from my experiences of their material, their debut was rooted in the no-frills Swedish melodeath of In Flames and company, while the sophomore record, The Unborn, threw in a more brutal and technical side of pioneers like Carcass and even some programmed effects. Liberation = Termination carries on this Dark Tranquillity-like path of angry melodeath combined with atmospheric keyboards and programmings. As mentioned above, this album is extremely pissed off. Singer Ville Viljanen operates very fluently between tortured throatsounds and deeper grunting, emphasising the former. The riffing and skilled drumfire is slightly more straight-forward this time around with added emphasis on pulverizing power instead of technical prowess. Fear not, widdlers, as the solos and occasional harmony melodies should be more then impressive enough to soothe your blindingly fast fingers. The musical scale on the album is quite impressive as well. Tunes like Finality, Sinner’s Defeat and Terminal Liberation have some scorching speed/death-riffmonsters leading the way, while the slightly more chaotic cuts with machine-sounds like Cleansing Rain and It Is Done remind me considerably of Strapping Young Lad, just without the brilliant humour. The Animal Within incorporates some eastern-tinged melodies among the carnage. The two instrumental tracks (ok, three if we count the short intro) on the album, Forgotten and Lost Beyond Retrieval, are slight breathers that bring vibes of Tranquillitys fabulous Ex Nihilo, just not quite as awesome. The production values are top-notch, with especially the melodic walls of sounds and keyboards in the background given just enough presence, but not too much. I actually would have liked more of the keyboards on the grand scale, as they would have contrasted the brutality very well. The band is surely at an unfortunate turning point after this release, as the bands guitarist/programmer and main songwriter Jori Haukio has just recently left the fold. There is no telling what direction they might head in. But for now, to all fans of extreme metal with melody and skilful playing, Liberation = Termination is highly recommendable.