Morsüre (Fra) - "Acceleration Process" LP, 1985

One of the more interesting things I find in the realm of heavy metal are bands that are actively trying to push the envelope. This shouldn't be confused with some of the "experimental" bands today which have 9 members, female vocals, and flute solos, but bands that legitimately have a concrete idea of what the core elements of heavy metal are and tried to push their music to that other level of the game. As evidenced by many of these reviews currently on this blog, its not that I don't appreciate bands that play in a tried and true style, but every now and then its refreshing to hear someone that is trying something different. Voivod were one of the earliest oddball thrash bands who had released two outstanding albums ("War and Pain" and "Rrroooaaarrr") in the mid 80s that perfectly captured the destructive ideals of thrash and the blossoming death metal scene, but also managed to integrate a far more dissonant approach to their songwriting. Not too many bands were influenced by Voivod's sound, and even today few bands approach music from a similar dissonant angle, however, there are two notable exceptions; the midwestern hardcore band Die Kruezen and Morsüre from France.

Much like in the case of Die Kruezen, whether Morsüre was directly influenced by Voivod's music or were just happening to be doing similar things at the same time is difficult to determine. Morsüre's first demo, "M.A.D." (standing of course for Mutually Assured Destruction - I'm a big fan of cold war imagery and paranoia in heavy metal and punk) came in 1984, the same year that Voivod's first album was released. By this time Morsüre had already developed their sound; dissonant guitar playing, almost "anti-riffs", at very high speeds, but don't have a driving rhythm typical of the thrash bands at the time. This wasn't party thrash music, but instead a very intense and cacophonous blast of noise at this listener. In short, much like Voivod's "Rrroooaaarrr".

In 1985, the band released "Acceleration Process", which reprised all of the songs from the demo and included six others. The playing and tone is very similar on the LP as it is on the demo with one very noticable exception; the use of an electronic drum kit. The band stated that they wanted to play the fastest, most extreme music on the planet, and that when the drummer played on a standard drum kit, the sound recording was not good enough to effectively capture how fast the drummer was actually playing. Instead of going for a muddy and blurry wall of noise, the band figured that if the drummer played an electronic kit, the recorded sound would be much clearer for the drum hits. In addition to this, the drumming was apparently sped up in the studio to further add to the intensity.

Its really difficult to say whether or not this approach worked or not. The drumming is extremely fast, and while the drums are sped up slightly, the drummer does do some notable work on the kit. However, the electronic drum sounds very out of place for this kind of music and is very high in the mix. It took me a while to get over this hurdle, but I personally feel the juxtaposition adds to the already chaotic nature of the music, just pushing it over the top a little more. The rest of the playing on this album is very tight to accompany the drums, but composed in such a fashion that it doesn't particularly move in a way that would appeal to the average speed/thrash fan. Instead the album acts as a wall of noise; chaotic in the sense that the guitars and drums are moving very fast, and combined with the hoarse thick French accent of the singer (another way this band bears similarities to Voivod), this is a great album to listen on headphones to just to try to take all of it in. One of my friends remarked that it sounded similar to Revenge in this element, and I agree. While the playing on the album is tight, it isn't to the level of cleaned up, polished and overproduced degree that technical death metal bands from the late 90s were, and despite the band's attempts to produce a less muddy and cleaner drum sound, the album still feels like an impenetrable wall of random notes assaulting the listener from all angles.

Naturally an album of this nature won't appeal to everyone. Even Voivod, one of the most original and outstanding bands in heavy metal have a large amount of detractors. While this album really sounds like few albums I've heard, "Rrroooaaarrr" would be the closest point of comparison. Fortunately there was enough cult interest in the band to garner a CD reissue of "Acceleration Process" and the "M.A.D." demo by Hell's Headbangers, which should still be rather easy to find. Listeners wanting a similar dissonant and overwhelming musical experience to early Voivod will probably appreciate this, but those looking for a standard straight forward death/thrash recording may be disappointed. This isn't one of those albums that will click right away, but instead requires multiple listens to fully understand what is going on; appreciating this can be a process, but is ultimately a very rewarding album.