Engulfing us with a pitch-black obscurity of the heavy guitar riffs, the dense atmosphere is reinforced by a morose kind of growling with the slower riffage that reeks of repulsive energy that seems embedded by the crushing percussion. Morast emphasizes a range of horror in which songs are encapsulated to sound devastating yet effective.

The guitar lends a rhythmical pace where you can imagine the sweeping darkness and with that said the German four-piece evokes a thrilling ambiance in the opening song “Of Furor And Ecstasy”. The music segues into grim black metal territories, therefore Morast can be described as black metal; you may experience a profound misanthropy from the malicious tone of the vocals. The riffs cut like razor-sharp through the pounding drums, although there is a cold industrial element that feels aggressive in the opening moments of “Aratron”.

“Fentanyl” combines black metal, doom metal, and crushing death metal elements; the misty atmosphere of the song features industrial undercurrents and brims with a miserable mood. The overall flow of the six songs holds the listener’s attention as a result, the crushing riffs have a gloomy cold touch with the bass guitar and the drums triggering a hypnotic feel and the slow doomy sections deliver powerful percussive beats and emanating an immense ambient aura.

The lumbering doom metal riffs in “Walls Come Closer” is another stand-out song that launches into a procession funeral pace with a subdued rhythm of the heavy guitar riffs sprawling into a desolate landscape of tremolo-picked riffs. There is even a modern iteration of black metal and sludge doom metal, each moment uncovers stomping drum beats and dreary misanthropic vocalization to behold its subtle elements.

Furthermore, aggression and reverb are often used to create tension, but Morast draws the listener with the sweeping riffs of blackened and doom metal and the snare quality of the drums that resonate with the heavy reverb. Other songs like “A Thousand and More” proceed in the same hypnotic formula, but there is a raw and powerful scale in the cold industrial element that flows and creeps into the song.

Spoken words are featured to add a bleak feeling with the layers of the distorted guitars and bass boosting up the atmosphere, the tempo shifts to mid-paced death/doom metal followed by heavy crescendos of the guitar effect.

The highlight of the album is the four-minute track “Akasha” which features trudging guitar riffs, the pace then transitions into a sinister murky death metal. The guitar effect is bleak and the atmosphere that creeps in stimulates dark emotions, as the swirling effect of the guitar builds with the heavy use of drum texture.

Morast molds the final “On Pyre” and maintains a heavy industrial vibe with repeated drum patterns, crafting a fine balance between the bleak atmosphere, trudging guitars, and barbaric growls. The German quartet employs innovative ideas, and compositions and exudes dreary feelings across the time length of the album, pulling you into the desolate landscapes of horror. The song takes a ritualistic approach; thus the guitar accentuates the aggressive and doom tone only to convey an eerie feeling towards the end.

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