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Hailing from the municipality of Joensuu located in North Karelia, Mordicus were one of Finland's many Death Metal bands back in the early '90s, releasing a handful of demos before eventually signing with Thrash Records and releasing their legendary debut full-length, Dances from the Left, in 1993. There was supposed to be a sophomore effort titled Disintegration Groove, but Yperano Records never released it for some reason, so this release is basically the only way to hear from these often-unsung legends.

Musically, Dances from the Left takes the typical Finnish sound and mixes in heavy doses of the Swedish sound to make an album that even today stands out as pretty novel. This makes for a raw, vile sound with powerful riffs, bestial gurgling, and some Carcass-esque grinding, which is all balanced out by some gorgeous, infectious melodic lines and solid groove sections that all have that melancholic edge you can only call Finnish. Every track hits like a dirty bomb full of rusted nails, but the obvious highlight is "A Thorn in a Holy Flesh", whose short acoustic interlude builds into a raging Death Metal tornado that obliterates everything in its path, all while sounding like nothing else even to this day.

It can be pretty hard to track down a physical copy of this album, but thankfully there was a digital remaster released to Bandcamp last year, so anyone looking for a lost gem of the Finnish Death Metal movement that stood out from the pack will want to go give it a listen pronto. If you want a physical copy, your best bet these days is probably the 2008 reissue from Temple of Darkness Records, which also comes packed with the Warthorn promo and Threeway Dissection EP, so it'd definitely be the most bang for your buck. Happy hunting.