The American veteran band Morta Skuld was touring in Europe for the first time, although they did at least a couple of festival appearance. I guess they arrived a bit too late on the scene, with their debut released in 1993 as by that time most of the death metal buzz was already fading. Much like many other cool bands from that era. Their only gig in the Netherlands this tour was in Utrecht on a rainy Tuesday evening.

They brought one support act, namely the UK band Decrepid. I hadn’t heard of them even though they released a few albums. They play death metal. In general though there is nothing new under the sun. It was well played, there is quite some variation, some cool solos and a couple of good riffs here and there. The vocals on the other hand were super monotonic. They only got to play half an hour, which is quite short for a two-band gig.

After the change-over, it was time for Morta Skuld. They started off with a song off their debut album. This is as old school as death metal can probably get. Lots of cool riffs, and the drums really augment the riffs. The newer material is a bit faster, including blast beats, but still very much riff-centric. They didn’t play anything from their second album. But five songs from the debut album. And the encore was the old demo track Feast from Within. Quite a good gig.