Shortly after posting our review of The Royal’s new EP, we received an email from another Dutch band that goes by the name of Mortukai. Mortukai is a five-piece that has been around for a very long time (approximately seven years), but because of member changes and other issues, they have yet to release an album or EP. Until now, that is. After a long time coming, Mortukai has finally released their debut EP, Demoralize. The instrumental intro track had me worried. It seems sloppy and quickly put together because it doesn’t flow very well at all. In its near two minute playtime, I was not even slightly impressed at any point. Don’t let that deter you, though, because Mortukai steps their game up as soon as the second track begins. Everything about the EP is impressive after the less than stellar start.
Demoralize is primarily a (progressive) metalcore release, but Mortukai dabbles in other genres frequently. At times, the riffing and drumming on Demoralize is very technical death metal-ish and sometimes there is a deathcore edge because of the use of pig squeals. Blast beats can be heard in nearly every song and pig squeals can be heard a few times on the tracks titled “State of Incoherency” and “Deflecting the Structure”.
The entire band displays a lot of skill throughout the EP, but the shining star is definitely the vocalist. He has a very wide range and manages to use almost every vocal technique known to ‘core’ music. He shines particularly bright in the final track which also my personal favourite, “Deflecting the Structure”, because he utilizes his highs, mids, and lows, and as previously mentioned, he throws in a few fantastic pig squeals. These pig squeals reminded me of old school Annotations of an Autopsy, so you can imagine how great they sound.
Demoralize is a five-track EP that brings quite a bit to the table in its fifteen minute stay. I’m still disappointed in the way that the EP starts off, but the remainder of the EP proves that there are other Dutch metal bands out there that have released something worth listening to this year; you just have to search for it (or have it sent to you in an email).
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