The stylistic pyroclasm of Morne's bleak, extreme but reachable metal did not happen overnight. Since their 2009 debut album, 'Untold Wait', the Boston-based four-piece have made simple categorizations like 'doom' or even 'metal' laughable, and their latest and fifth full-length, 'Engraved with Pain', refines their attack to a level toward which even 2018's 'To the Night Unknown' could only hint.

Playing out across four chapters, the 40-minute album sees the veteran outfit - yes, all the festivals, including Roadburn, Hellfest, etc.; tours and tours and tours - crafting rhythmic tension and lung-squeezing atmospheres as Polish-born guitarist/vocalist Milosz Gassan emits layered guttural shouts that speak to inner and outer crises. 'Engraved with Pain' makes its title believable, and from its eponymous opener through "Memories Like Stone," "Wretched Empire" and "Fire and Dust," it carries humanity individually and collectively through the realities of its decline. As a species, it's hard to argue we didn't have it coming.

CD/ LP:

01. Engraved with Pain
02. Memories Like Stone

03. Wretched Empire
04. Fire and Dust