Another Episode Recap Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!

For today's post, let's continue to play catch-up with the remaining un-recapped episodes of Metal Morpheus on local internet radio station The Borderline! As you may recall, the series has been put on hold for publically unannounced reasons since last month, and said break continued into the new year, as both of the January episodes so far turned out to be re-airings from last year, while the January 16th episode either didn't take place or did not have an episode page put up. The fact that reruns aired at all was at least a sign that host Josh Amendola will be back with more new episodes, but the lack of even a rerun this past Sunday may be concerning. We'll keep you posted, but note that if Metal Morpheus airs live on The Borderline this weekend, it'd be on Sunday night at 9:00 PM. The two last (so far?) episodes include the heavily revised Soo Metal one on December 5th, which we will look at soon.

As for November 28th's episode, it featured the next installment of Josh's planned series looking at bands from countries around the world in alphabetical order, albeit skipping six countries after Algeria to instead shine a spotlight on Austria. This takes us to Central Europe and into more hospitable territory for a thriving metal scene, given how Josh didn't have to devote nearly half the episode to local bands! The slightly longer 71 minute episode starts with Josh acknowledging that he skipped countries intentionally due to "crazy shit going on" (his words) in Austria, but he promised to cycle back to bands he passed in the As, specifically name-dropping Argentina and Australia, though obviously, neither has followed yet. After giving some information on Austria (ignore the mispronunciation of some of the composers' names), Josh starts by looking at death metal trio Pungent Stench.

He gives them lots of back story before playing two songs of theirs, namely "Extreme Deformity" (2:25) and "Games of Humilation" (8:25). Next, Josh plays power metal quartet Stygma IV's song "Earth Children" (14:05), which is not on Spotify, before playing melodic death metal band The Sorrow's track "Heart Of A Lion" (20:45). The first half of the episode ends with power metal quintet Edenbridge (a rare example of a female fronted band on Metal Morpheus), whose song played on air is the 10+ minutes long "The Grand Design" (25:35). Two songs follow from the symphonic death metal band Hollenthon, who share a singer with Pungent Stench, and these songs include "The Calm Before The Storm" (36:20) and "Woe To The Defeated" (42:25). Afterwards, Josh plays death metal band Disharmonic Orchestra's grindcore era track "Disharmonisation" (48:40).

The Austrian journey ends with two more bands, including black/death metal veterans Belphegor (the band in this episode I was most familiar with) playing "Blutsabbath" (54:25), and lastly, prog/power metal quartet Serenity's song "For Freedom's Sake" (1:01:55). Before the episode proper ended, Josh played that week's requisite local band, though only partially, as he played a song by Down In Ashes, the Ottawa-based hard rock band featuring Sault native Steve Brogno (ex-Driving Dave Home and Turner Up) on drums. Oddly, Josh did not mention Steve by name, let alone that they're not technically a local band, but their song played on air was "Veins" (1:07:30), the title track of Down In Ashes' 2012 EP. They're a solid group for fans of modern hard rock, and it's a shame Steve's never brought them to home for a gig that I know of, but at least his other Ottawa band The Red Rails have been here!

Despite a few missed details in band bios, this was an entertaining episode of Metal Morpheus, helped by having a national metal scene that is more plentiful with less need to fill time or run the supply dry! With the series' return still in limbo, it remains to be seen if Josh will return to alphabetical order as promised, but Andorra, Angola, and Antigua & Barbuda would technically be next if he does (given their small national scenes, I'd bundle them together if I was him). The final new episode (of 2021?) will be spotlighted on the SMS next week, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site either tomorrow or on Friday! Thanks everyone!