One of the black metal underground's best-kept secrets, MORTA first fully arose from the crypt with SIGNAL REX's release of their debut EP, Funebre. Banging 'n' clanging anguish echoing from the filthiest dungeons, the then-trio's first short-length succinctly displayed their palpably physical - and surprisingly emotive - attack across nearly a half-hour. In a sense, Funebre felt like an album, but such was still brewing... At long last, MORTA's debut album bubbles up from the primordial muck with no small amount of rudeness: La España negra. Pure and proud BLACK METAL from southern climes, MORTA's first full-length carries forward many/most of its predecessors' foremost strengths - deft shifts from spiralingly violent hypnosis to scabrously headbanging segments, a remorselessly raw-yet-refined soundfield, ugly and emotional in equal measure - but a relatively wider (and wilder) swath of ideas and textures are given ample room to roam across this 39-minute recording. Just like that predecessor, La España negra resides firmly within the realm of black metal, be it elder expressions from the '90s and underground-entrenched ones post-Y2K; the now-quartet honor the sanctity of the artform by exploring their own vibrations rather than those of others. But within a longer format and maximizing that expanded lineup, MORTA often allow bass guitar to guide their eerily hummable melodicism - again, one could liken that to a romanticism unique to their Spanish heritage - and even when pushing busier, denser tonalities, there's a perversely ethereal quality that creates a cool disconnect. Their dungeons are deeper than ever, and the reverberations go straight to the soul...
