Review Summary: Excellent second album from NYDM titans.
Just two years after releasing Ritual of Infinity, a highly-regarded debut heavily rooted in the New York style of death metal, Morpheus Descends released this, their second and final full-length. To my ears at least, it’s an improvement on a very good first album; the riffs are arguably better whilst maintaining the creepy, doom-esque feel that was shown on Ritual of Infinity. The drumming provides a full-bodied pummelling but with a more bass-heavy feel but perhaps the greatest development is in the vocals. Now even deeper and more hideous, they are brilliantly gripping.
Throughout Chronicles of the Shadowed Ones, the sound is filthy, with a density that is reminiscent of
Convulse’s World Without God or a far better version of
Demigod’s Slumber of Sullen Eyes. On Chronicles of the Shadowed Ones, Morpheus Descends ensure that they should be remembered and adored as
Incantation are. Not just because they both hail from New York but because they released material on a par with much of Incantation’s early work. Perhaps Chronicles… would have received more attention had it not been released in 1994, the year that gave us Blasphemy Made Flesh, …For Victory and a personal favourite, Mortal Throne of Nazarene.
