Morast - Fentanyl (2025)^{Release ID: 57611}

Fentanyl opens with a huge, slamming breath of blackened doom that expels everything else from out of the immediate ether into parts unknown. 'Of Furor and Ecstasy' is immediately the center of attention and Morast dare you to take your eyes (or more importantly – your ears) off it for more than a second. The cloying and suffocating atmosphere that the opening track exudes makes for an excellent start to this, the band’s third full-length. Stretching to a little over thirty-four minutes, this is not a record that outstays its welcome by any means either, that excellent opening therefore should be maintained relatively easily.

Whilst the memory of it is never truly lost, the powerful opening of Fentanyl morphs into different forces as the album progresses. Certainly, unafraid to play with pace and tempos, Morast vary the riffs, adding tremolos in alongside the heavier moments. There is more of a sense of a large, lumbering beast in the main, but it has more parasitical entities in tow, and they ferment unimaginable plagues within their scaly bodies. The riffs sound like these parasites mining into the earth as they fall from the husk on which they grow. This gives a real sense of expansion with the music, like it is moving in many directions. As relentless as its momentum may be, there are offshoots to track also.

This mixture of component parts makes tracks such as ‘A Thousand and More’ attain an almost enchanting depth, with dancing, down-tuned riffs ploughing through the solid percussion. Yet, on other occasions, simplicity rules the day. Straight forward riffing and drumming propel penultimate track ‘Akasha’ along and whilst I do not get the sense that Morast are the most technical of players, they clearly approach their art with strong commitment to stamping their own signature on things. I am reminded of how few bands manage to do this blackened doom sub-section of The Fallen anywhere near reasonably well. There aren’t too many obvious comparators between Morast and other bands that spring to mind, even after multiple listens through to Fentanyl. It is a standout record therefore, at least so far this year anyways.