2013 in Melbourne, Australia, the Black Metal band MAR MORTUUM was born. Their existence is to simply "create chaos and further transcend from humanity". MAR MORTUUM quickly released a demo album at the end of 2013 and has now released their first full length album "Nihilistic Advance" here in 2014. The album comes in at ten tracks and 52 minutes of heavy and hard listening time.

"Nihilistic Advance" starts off with "Viral Heaving Death". A brutal start to an album indeed, with the growls and drum blast beats that pretty much drowned everything for the first few seconds of the track. The guitars are low and mesh wonderfully with the bass that helps with the blast beats from the drums. There were a few spots where there was chunkiness from the drums, but nothing that really takes away from the integrity of the track. The vocals are super gritty but a bit higher for just a harsh sound. They are pretty unique. There is a portion of this song towards the end that it riddled with the riffs from the guitars that prove this album will have life.

"Enlightened Vicious Scorn", track four of the album, is where we start hearing a bit of creativity. The beginning is beautifully done. It slowly transforms into a fast yet still subdued version of MAR MORTUUM's sound. This is my favorite piece on "Nihilistic Advance" because it shows a full spectrum of skills the group has to offer.

Track six "The Offering", by far the shortest track on the album coming in at a mere two minutes, but the musicianship in the instrumental interlude was pretty offsetting to the rest of the album and deserves just as much attention as the rest of the album does.

"Ritual Abandon" is a pretty creepy track, in all the best ways. The bass line in this one is the shining star. They even allow it to have solo time of its own. With the addition of the guitars, that solo was brilliantly written. The drums are pretty low key set off in the back of the music, but that just amplifies the creepiness with the vocals until the end of the track.

"Nihilistic Advance" is an album that should be added to your collection. It is a good listen with skills that are much older than a debut.