Album Review: House By The Cemetary – The Mortuary Hauntings
Reviewed by Sam Jones
With a name like House By The Cemetery, we’re already given an idea as per what kind of soundscape such a band will produce. It’s death metal galore as prolific guitarist phenom Rogga Johannson returns at the forefront of House By The Cemetery’s second full length album: The Mortuary Hauntings. Formed several years ago, the band are a fusion of Swedish and American members, the latter being vocalist Mike Hrubovcak who has previously performed for Monstrosity, Vile and currently does so for Hypoxia. The band’s first record came out in 2021, titled Rise Of The Rotten, it was fast and brutal and given Johannson’s name attached to it, the band saw an immediate signing on to Pulverized Records from the outset. Now, three years later, the band continue their record label partnership as they unveil plans to unleash their forthcoming album. The Mortuary Hauntings is slated for a May 31st release date and I was more than curious to see what such a record would have in store for myself. Johannson may be prolific but his multiple projects always find some way to differentiate themselves from each other.
Though the band are a Swedish-dominated death metal act, the ripping, eviscerating buzzsaw tone they apply herein isn’t as total as you’d hear in other Swedish extreme metal bands like Dismember for example. You’ve also got that slight American influence oozing through the record as the band’s guitar tone, though sleek and shredding is at the slightest touch, possesses a clenched fist in its timbre. Even as the band undergo their fastest pieces of songwriting, you always feel like you’ve got a firm hold on where the band’s trajectory is taking you. As a result, it’s like you’re sprinting alongside their riffs as opposed to them running through you. The record’s bass within the mix also ensures there’s a veritable wall of sound not merely thrown your way, but is also separating you from the band also. It allows us to feel every strike and impact the band pull off without us having to keep up with the band’s onslaught. It reshapes the band’s sound aesthetically into this ball, one that’s constantly bouncing back and forth between the band’s performance and yourself.
Much like many Rogga Johannson-collaborated projects, House By The Cemetery exemplifies the stripped back and straightforward songwriting that his bands have been reckoned with. If you’re after death metal that’s more indulgent with its intricacies, that’s perfectly fine, but it’s not what House By The Cemetery are gunning for. The record’s runtime isn’t too long so we can’t expect anything too technical or progressively evolving; it’s run-and-gun death metal and honestly, I wasn’t expecting anything else. For the most part, the vibe you feel and experience at the start of a song is what you’ll still have by the time it comes to its conclusion, yet you won’t find yourself in lacklustre reception seeing how honest and straight the band get to the point. These guys haven’t gone into this record vying to be anything other than what you have right now before you, nor is it wishing to be the greatest thing you’ve ever heard. It merely requests to sit back and enjoy your time with The Mortuary Hauntings for nine tracks straight, and if that entices you to return to their 2021 debut then they’ve succeeded on their part.
Vocally, Mike Hrubovcak does a great job here as he demonstrates an ability not only to keep us engaged from one track to the next, but his voice harnesses a control and dexterity not many vocalists can boast over. The band may play quickly, but compared to other bands their songwriting is positively steady and doesn’t try and outrun your individual ability to keep track of where the band are taking you. As a result, the vocals complement the pacing by giving us a more grounded death metal performance that’s reminiscent of a Bloodbath record where the instrumentation is hurling evil vortices our way and yet the vocals remain steadfast and rooted, ensuring our attention isn’t needlessly flying off elsewhere. Using this interpretation, Hrubvocak’s vocals do a stellar job at grounding our attention which is all the better since his slower performance means we can actually discern what he’s saying. It’s one of the rarer, intelligible extreme metal vocal deliveries whereby we’re given the opportunity to delve that little deeper into immersion.
Whilst the band’s mix and riffs add a great deal to their capacity to grab us by the throat, it’s with the drums whereby their hold moves from the throat, to flat out clutching our craniums. We’ve touched upon how the bass injects a huge plethora of strength into their performance, but I feel like that facet isn’t fully realised until you encounter the bass drums thrown into the fire. With a drumming performance effectively devoid of blast beats, The Mortuary Hauntings is a record much more old school than many of its contemporaries; the drums here aren’t anything you won’t have heard before, but the drums tracks on show are precisely what a straightforward record such as this needed to bolster the impact House By The Cemetery do indeed make. I think the inclusion of blast beats would have lessened the drums’ prescence, creating additional elements for the audience to focus on. So, by removing blast beats, and narrowing what the drums may infer to us, it streamlines our attention to what we feel are the most importsnt aspects of the drumming and the band themselves know this. It’s why such a base drumming performance feels so amplified and strong.
In conclusion, The Mortuary Hauntings is like a commodity that you know doesn’t do anything massively different than the next dozen or so likewise things you’ve picked up for the same purpose, and yet House By The Cemetery went into the writing and recording of this record knowing full well they, and many fans, would be more than content for this very reason. There’s no wool pulled over your eyes here as the band lay things out crystal clear in track one that there’s no gratuitous attempt at something more avant-garde or overtly artistic; these guys are playing death metal at your face for a half hour without interruption with no suggestion of anything otherwise. It’s one reason why I respect Rogga Johannson and his numerous bands; they’re far from the most technical or idealistic bands, but every time I come away from a new album he’s a part of, I’m immensely satisfied by what I was given and understand I could return at any time to it and get back that exact same pleasure I received first time round. It’s a real blast of a record and knows what it is, and it’s here to do. A grand time to be had.
