Artist: Messe Mortuaire / Trance Of The Undead
Country: France / Brazil
Label: Angel Of Cemetery Records
Formats: Split 7″ EP
Year: 2025
‘Funeral Mass For The Undead’ is a split 7” EP combining one track of both Messe Mortuaire from France and Brazilian one-man army Trance Of The Undead. Definitely a welcome sign of life from the French guys, whose first and last offering was their amazing 2022 ‘Nocturnal Demonic Visitation’-demo tape (also released on 12” vinyl by Iron Bonehead Productions in 2023). And with quite an impressive track record already, there’s no complaining by something new from Trance Of The Undead either.
The Frenchmen start off with their track, ‘The Great Sarcophagus’. The thing strikes most is the fact that although the band had been silent for a few years, the musical direction didn’t suffer from this seeming hibernation. This new track is basically some sort copy-paste of just any random song off their 20-minute demo from a couple of years ago. The only major difference is mostly a cosmetic nature. The nice crunchy sound of the demo is traded for a far more dense and crushing sort of guise, and while I have a slight preference for the demo’s overall production, I think ‘The Great Sarcophagus’ sounds more than good this way. With this slightly new approach, Messe Mortuaire moves more towards slightly standard Bestial Black/Death Metal territories; wild Palubicki-like leads and Incantation-fueled heaviness included. Consequently, that alluring and plain stunning open-chord Heavy Metal-based riffing, a bit akin to Necros Christos, is a bit lost in this newer formula – at least, it is much less prominent and needs a closer listen.
Flipping the record will give you Trance Of The Undead, led by the person that goes with the same name. As per usual, his take on the Black/Death Metal genre is more based on the foundations laid by bands such as Mystifier, Varathron, Samael and Mortuary Drape. This almost 6-minute new track called ‘Natum Mortuus Celebration’ starts off with a few keyboard tunes that reminds of Cradle Of Filth’s debut album, but quickly ventures in very familiar waters. What follows is a very dynamic track that combines fast and barbaric Black/Death brutalism with more atmospheric parts in which synthesizers play a prominent role. A nice and organic sound seals the deal and shows that Trance Of The Undead is a musician that is sorely overlooked. People into South American Extreme Metal or those who have a knack for the new generation of bands that tend to find their homes on smaller cult-ish labels like Medieval Prophecy Records and Zombi Danz Records definitely should take notice. However, it remains to be seen if this split 7″ EP will be easy to find outside the borders of this small label’s native Brazil…
