Modus Vivendi, Tad Morose

It’s always great to witness a select few bands who will never betray their stylistic roots but who rather choose to progress as musicians and deliver one quality release after another, neglecting short-lived trends and hype-movements but instead solidifying as a real institution within their metallic sub-genre. TAD MOROSE from Bollnäs, Sweden is one of those acts. The group have always received positive feedback and support from the global Metal media ever since their early albums in the ‘90s through former label Black Mark, and the band shows no signs of getting bored in their task of supplying pure, heavily raw US-styled power metal to the masses. “Modus Vivendi”, the band’s sixth offering will allow them to make their well-deserved next climb up the ladder to the metal throne. Opening the album with the viciously catchy and powerful “Anubis”, you get the immediate impression of what TAD MOROSE are all about: awesome riffing, fierce rhythms, delicate melodies, and traditional Metal roots combined with modern, interesting rhythmical displays as well as some of the best clean power metal vocals out there, courtesy of Urban Breed. The band promoted their last release, 2002’s “Matters Of The Dark”, on a tour with NWOBHM legends Demon and support act Chinchilla, as well as appearing on prestigious festivals like 2000 Decibel, Metal Dayz, Sweden Rock and Wacken. Last summer TAD MOROSE entered their traditional local studio facility, Studio Soundcreation, to record these untamed, ten brilliant news songs and then moved to Gothenburg’s Fredman Studio to mix the album together with Fredrik Nordström (Dream Evil, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir) achieving a great combination of raw heaviness and clear audio-quality. As with TAD MOROSE’s previous release, the great packaging of “Modus Vivendi” was done by up ‘n’ coming German artist Jan Meininghaus (Bolt Thrower, Brainstorm, Zonata) which perfectly captures the atmosphere of the music. Combined “Modus Vivendi” is a no-fillers album full of neatly written power metal anthems complete with catchy arrangements which won’t leave your memory after the album’s virgin spin. Take the hooky “No Mercy”, the compactly pounding “Clearly Insane”, the brilliant semi-ballad “Cyberdome” with its marvellously thrilling vocal-lines, or the rather epic “Life In A Lonely Grave” and you should be finding metallic shelter in the arms of this Swedish five-piece. This is how up-to-date power metal needs to sound in order to make a smooth transition into the future!