UMUR
"Salvation Never Comes" is the 4th full-length studio album by Polish death metal act Mortis Dei. The album was released through Metal Scrap Records in July 2014. It´s the successor to "Last Failure" from 2009 and features quite a few lineup changes compared to the lineup who recorded the predecessor. Lead vocalist Mirosław Harenda has switched to playing guitar and new lead vocalist is Łukasz Kobusiński. Guitarist Piotr Niemczewski has left and has been replaced by Bartosz Gawroński. The remaining members of the lineup are drummer Maciej Urbaniak and bassist Grzegorz Zaremba.
Stylistically the material on the 9 track, 31:44 minutes long album continue the death metal style of the predecessor. It´s well played death metal featuring tempo changes, a good level of brutality in the riff and vocal department, and the occasional more melodic moment (particularly the melodic guitar solos). It´s all well performed and well produced too, but although the tracks are all well written and the album is enjoyable while it plays, it´s not an album featuring many standout tracks. It´s a solid and consistent quality release, but in the bigger picture it´s a fairly standard release in the genre.
Mortis Dei have made little adjustments to their sound over the years, and especially the predecessor and this one have shown nice potential, but if they want to take it to the next level, they will have to concentrate on writing more unique and memorable material. They have all the tools to succeed in that as they are skilled musicians, and obviously have access to professional recording fascilities. As it is "Salvation Never Comes" is still a quality release though, and while I may feel it could have been even better with more memorable songwriting, a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.