This is the first full-length album by MORBID PROTOTYPE. This is a very ambitious project, two CDs clocking at a whopping 1 hour and 40 minutes. This is not something you see nowadays, not in the local scene and definitely not in the Black Metal Genre. This is a lifetime of work, blood, sweat and tears. You will always be defined by what you do and this concept album is quite remarkable. I am not the biggest Black Metal fan at all, I do appreciate the iniquities of the music but the vocals have been always the low point for me. On this album, the blackened vocals are actually very well done and add texture to the songs. You have pretty much three different types of vocals throughout the album, Black Metal shrieking, low guttural growls and both of these vocal stylings intertwined. They alternate on the songs and some songs have more guttural vocals like good old CANNIBAL CORPSE and some have the Black Metal shrieking from bands like CRADLE OF FILTH and whatnot. You have something for everyone pretty much.

It's difficult for me to pinpoint any song because there is a lot of material to pick from. These two acts are distinct albums but follow the same path. The first and last song of the first act is the beginning and the end of the story itself. The lyrics reflect upon the album cover and relate its story to the listener. I thought it was a nice touch because sometimes the album cover doesn't mean much but this time it's a focal point of this story driven album. I give the guys credit on this particular aspect. According to the info I have gathered, these two albums (or acts) were recorded at the same time. The first act has compositions ranging from 2006 and 2015 and the second act has songs from the beginning of 2018 and onward. The two compositions that are the more recent on the first act are ''Eye of the Cyclone'' and ''Epilogue''.

This album has a ton of guest musicians, I have never seen this much guest musicians in all my life except those concept albums by the likes of AYREON or AVANTASIA but those are more Metal Operas than anything else. You have a lot of great local talent lending their hand (or guitars) to this remarkable double album. You gotta give the guys some really credit because this was an awesome sight to see. You can see the seriousness in this project and wanting to do something quite memorable.

ACT I - Spiritual Genocide

''Spiritual Genocide'' - Solo by Patrick Loisel and Mathieu Marcotte (AUGURY)
''Enter the Cataclysm'' - Solo by David Gagné (HOLLOW, YOUR LAST WISH)
''Reptilian Queen'' - Solo by Michael Beaudoin (BLINDED BY FAITH)
''Eye of the Cyclone'' - Solo by Dean Paul Arnold (VITAL REMAINS, PRIMALFROST)
''Barbaric'' - Solo by Manuel Iradian (DEMISE OF THE CROWN)
''Extreme Game of Power'' - Solo by Charles B. Pilotte (PRONOSTIC)
''Spiraling Darkness Insight'' - Solo by Christian Donaldson (CRYPTOPSY)
''Existence is Futile'' - Solo by Wax Lamontagne
''The Walking Dead''
''Epilogue (The Darkest Descent)'' - Solo by Michael J. Bernardino

ACT II - The Darkest Descent

''Gargantua'' - Solo by Romano Kis-Rabata (HATALOM)
''Chimera'' - Solo by Patrick Loisel and Mathieu Marcotte (AUGURY)
''The Blackening'' - Solo by Stéphane Filion (NOVA SPEI)
''Morbid Prototype'' - Solo by Michael J. Bernardino
''The Flesh of God'' - Solo by Mathieu Plamondon (KÄLTER, BLINDED BY FAITH)
''Abyssal Screams'' - Solo by Branislav Panic (BANE)
''Volatile'' - Solo by Adam St-Laurent (MECANIX)
''Heathens Sailing Over the Northern Tides'' - Solo by Danny Mc Gregor (ECLIPSE PROPHECY)

BONUS TRACKS:

''Black Dragon'' (DISSECTION Cover) - Solo by Mathieu Plamondon (KÄLTER, BLINDED BY FAITH)
''The Road to Devastation'' (KATAKLYSM cover) - Solo by Pierre-Olivier Mérizzi (ECLIPSE PROPHECY, DECADAWN)
''O Father O Satan O Sun!'' (BEHEMOTH cover) - Solo by Dave Evangelista (GODDAMN ELECTRIC)

The last song of the second act is a love-letter or homage to the forefathers of the genre. This sounded straight of the early 90's like early IMMORTAL and BATHORY. I thought this was a nice touch and this may be my favorite song of the bunch. I have a lot of songs I loved on this album but this one gave me a great sense of past greatness. The song is really on point and has that classic sound we all love from the heyday.

This is a remarkable journey as a concept album. Everything was recorded by the leader and front man of the band. He did the drums and did a pretty damn good job. Even though technology has a big part on this album, the sound is truly organic and doesn't seem too forced to the listener out there. That is pure dedication; he recorded everything and produced the whole opus. He was literally a one man wrecking crew. For something that was produced independently and recorded in a timely fashion, this was great. The guy deserves a lot of credit on making an album that sounds like a ton of bricks. I was really impressed and you can see he really worked his butt of to do a great job from the smallest detail and onward. I have heard professionally produced albums that sound way worse than this.

The last song of the first album is very reminiscent of older OPETH songs, when the clean vocals were just a fragment of what they were doing but when they did go that route, it meant something. The song is pretty long but ends the album on the right note. It gives a foreboding vibe and it's a pretty nice transition with the following act. I definitely preferred the second in the lyrics and songs as a whole. But the first Act has some really nice and thought provoking lyrics. My favorite (well second favorite) song of the first album is ''Existence is Futile''. This meant a lot to me personally. That feeling you have at the pit of your stomach that tells you do you really matter to people, have you done something in this world that the world will remember you by? Is there anything logical in living when there is a beginning and an eventual demise? Our existence is unfortunately futile unless we do something that is bigger than us, bigger than everything. This song really spoke to more than the others.

I loved the nice intro on ''Spiritual Genocide'' , it was very reminiscent of the opening chords of ''Black Sabbath'' and if a band says they weren't influenced by the godfathers of Metal, well they are lying. Each and every band out there has been influenced by the Metal Gods in one way or another. I thought ''Extreme Game of Power'' could have fit really well in the ''Seasons in the Abyss'' period of SLAYER. That ominous slow tone at the beginning really made me think of them. I really enjoyed listening to this song and I believe it's the song that I remember the most out of the first album even though it's not necessarily my favorite! The cover songs are a nice touch. I didn't know much about the DISSECTION track but I have heard the other two songs a number of times. These are good covers and they did a great job making the songs their own. Props on doing a cover of local masters KATAKLYSM. An up and coming band covering a well established local band, I really enjoyed that honestly.

This album is top notch, it's the work of a lifetime. They worked their butts off and took the time to get out this wonderful masterpiece. I hope they will have great success because they really deserve it. It shows that there is so much greatness on the local Quebec Metal scene, it's freakin' mindboggling!