![Lividity – Rejoice In Morbidity [EP / Re-Release] lividity – rejoice in morbidity [ep / re-release]](https://www.vm-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Lividity-Rejoice-In-Morbidity-Cover.jpg)
Info
- Band(s): Lividity
- Label(s): Grinder Cirujano Records, Sindrome Productions
- Release Format(s): Cassette, CD, EP, Re-Release
- Release Year: 2022
- Review Date: March 6, 2023
- Author(s): FelixS
‘Rejoice In Morbidity’ was Lividity’s first EP, originally released on cassette tape back in 1996 on the short-lived Immortal Records (which, frankly, seemed not quite immortal after all). It did see a reissue on 7” EP on Vice-Core Records in 2008 already and was also compiled on the ‘Fetish For The Sick & Rejoice In Morbidity’ CD in 2015. Last year it finally also saw its first stand-alone re-release on CD as well as on cassette tape.
The EP introduces Lividity to the public with a great movie sample of Hannibal Lector, from the scene when he asks the female senator whose daughter is missing, if the girl was breastfed and then says “Amputate a man’s leg, and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, Mom, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?”. That actually is a proper introduction to one of the most perverted and tasteless bands in history of Death Metal. It’s all about mutilating and torturing, especially, female figures. No, it’s not sophisticated and female-friendly, but… Lividity is a band to be reckoned with in the genre.
Of course, it is a gimmick and meant as some twisted sort of humour and if you are able to look past this, the four tracks on this EP offer quite an entertaining listen. It features the sort of Death Metal that was getting more popular during those years of the second half of the 90’s and up to the first years of the 00’s. Brutal Death Metal, with a (slight) technical twist and gory lyrics and visuals. Short choppy riffs and wild bursts of blast beats as well as the mandatory guttural vocals, Lividity had it all early on in their career. And while none of their later albums have a really solid sound, as so many bands in the genre do, the songs of the original ‘Rejoice In Morbidity’ EP sound a bit thin but at the same time have a certain charm.
The CD version has three extra tracks, recorded live at the Ohio Deathfest in 1999. On that two-day event Lividity shared the stage with bands such as Devourment, Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy, Gorgasm, Skinless, Fleshgrind, Disgorge, Vomit Remnants, Cephalic Carnage, Anal Blast and Malignancy (what about that line-up?). Together with the earliest editions of the German Fuck The Commerce festivals it can be regarded as the Woodstock of (then) modern Death Metal. Their examples have been mimicked many time later, even to such an extent that every country, state or city worldwide had their own ’Deathfest’ – with varying success. They might not always been taken seriously, Lividity was there from the earliest steps, both in forging a new Death Metal movement as well as giving those Deathfests a kickstart. And for that we thank and compliment them, a reissue of their early work in the form of this CD (or cassette tape), is therefore a welcome gesture.