Hacked Up for Barbecue

The music is fun. Greasy grooves that seem cut out for the gore concept; Chuh-chuh-chuh-chuh chugg, chuh-chuh-chuh-chuh chugg; throw in a few nasty tremolo parts and the occasional wailing frenzied vibrato, brutal ultra-low monotone vocals... and of course, electronic drums on top of it all. And they work. The robotic and unforgiving personality of the natural blast beat translates perfectly to the artificial setting, and the overheads add an oddly satisfying scintillating quality to the beats and grooves, similar to early Godflesh with how they somehow complement the heaviness. The guitars are of course unreasonably massive, and it seems like they mix with the low end of the bass to form a huge wall of sound, while the buzzing bass guitar is nearly more guitar than the guitar.

But the mere music from a technical standpoint hardly requires paragraphs of descriptive details - surely this much can be agreed upon - and it seems like a ripe opportunity to delve deeper into the broader phenomenon occurring here as on other similar records, rather than purely the music as music. It will escape no soul's attention that the whole point in this is a cultivated grotesque, and that this form of music mirrors horror cinema. In particular slashers and exploitation type horror. Interestingly, there's a term in cinema jargon, "paracinema", that refers to films produced outside the mainstream, which exploitation horror is part of. That area contains all things ranging from avant-garde to outright bizarre, too crude or hyper-intensive to be shown on television. Something like this album could've been considered "para-metal" in that sense, at a time when this sort of thing was a definite oddity. There's clearly an exhibited disinterest from the band with the usual output from the scene, and a willingness to expose a perceived fair-weathered nature in the industry. Everything is way overdone - intentionally - and farcically it puts a hard dent into any haughty pretensions that may exist in metal.

The crowd plays with fire but do it at a safe distance...but these guys get closer to the danger, looking to feel the real heat. Introducing all these stock samples (kudos to them for selecting some fairly cryptic, good ones) from old school horror is an overt way to instill a deep sense of unease into the listener, achieving that closer proximity with threat. The films are fictional, but the atmosphere produced from those samples is in effect chillingly eerie, perhaps even more so here as they're presented in bare audio, out of context, as to extract a potent concentrate from them. It makes the whole experience more complete, introducing something akin to a visual dimension, nearly tangible, along with the album cover, and more conceptually the "song" titles which are, for many, direct inspirations from the various films involved.

All in all, it's a purposely vulgar way to reach for indecency: 'Brutal Disfigurement', 'Blown to Pieces', 'Drilling for Brains'...titles so exaggerated they border on comedy. Others like 'Cremated', 'Worms', 'Decapitated'...like one-word punches to the face, and three among a festering brood of twenty-four on the record, a testament to the overkill character of gore death-grind: absurd, abrupt, random. And absurd. And random.
Yeah that's it I'm done: hey, the title just says "deeper analysis", not life-changing.

I am not the kind of person to put together a top ten list of anything, but I do have favorites, whether it is movies, albums, books, etc. I may not be able to put them into a really specific order, but I know they are favorites of mine.

One of my all-time favorite death metal albums is Mortician's 1996 classic, Hacked Up for Barbecue. It is 24 tracks of heavy, brutal, straight-forward death metal that showcase a major love for the horror genre.

The album kicks off with a sample from a horror movie. Yes, shocking, I know. Okay, this is basically how every Mortician release begins, but that is part of Mortician's sound. The sample here is from the movie When a Stranger Calls and it sets the mood really nicely before Roger's guitar dive-bomb tears through the speakers to start off "Bloodcraving". Quickly, I want to point out that Mortician seems to have songs that are short and just get-in-and-get-out bursts of musical brutality and then others that are more developed. This isn't really an idea I came up with on my own, as I think I have seen it mentioned in some other review or something regarding Mortician. Still, the shorter ones seem to be the grindcore influence and the other ones come from a more death metal influence. There are even some songs that seem to be a bit on the fence between the two. "Bloodcraving" is one of the more developed ones, along with songs like "Hacked Up for Barbecue", "Necrocannibal", and "Fog of Death", among others. Some of the shorter, more concentrated ones would be songs like "Ripped in Half", "Drilling for Brains", and "Blown to Pieces".

The songs on the album are a mixture of newer ones and older ones. There are songs that the band had recorded and released earlier, as well as some which the band had at least been playing live for a few years or so. First there are the three songs from 1990 demo: "Brutally Mutilated", "Necrocannibal", and "Mortician", which shortly after were pressed as the Brutally Mutilated seven inch. Then, from the Mortal Massacre seven inch, there is "Drilling for Brains". Finally, we also have re-recorded versions of three tracks that had appeared on the Corporate Death compilation: "Embalmed Alive", "Hacked Up for Barbecue", and "Abolition". Then there are songs like "Bloodcraving", which had not been recorded in the studio prior to this, to my knowledge, but the band had been playing live.

I remember when this album was new that it seemed next to nobody liked Mortician. It seemed everybody just dismissed the band, with few exceptions. Certainly, I remember Ross Dolan from Immolation wearing a House by the Cemetery shirt and John McEntee of Incantation dug the band, as well as even playing for a short time in the band, while Will Rahmer handled vocals for Incantation. Short story: I went to an Immolation show during the Failures for Gods tour and ran into John McEntee, who was filling in on guitars for that tour. We were both wearing Hacked Up for Barbecue shirts, which I noticed when I went up to talk to him. The main man of Incantation knew this album is badass. Regardless, it's an amusing coincidence, in my opinion.

What makes this album great? First off, the riffs. They aren't complicated or mindlessly technical, but they work. They are memorable and heavy. Sometimes they have a bit of groove, other times they are just full-speed-ahead aggression, and sometimes they are slow and doomy. Secondly, the overall sound. Despite what some people may think, Mortician's sound is a rather difficult one to create. The guitars are low, the bass is low, the vocals are low, but then there is the drum machine, which is in a much higher range by comparison. You have so much competing for those low frequencies, that it is much easier to just create an inaudible mess, which I am sure many people would still say is exactly what every single Mortician release is. However, the sound here is actually quite good. The riffs come through, the vocals come through, and the drum machine is always going to cut through easily, but it doesn't end up overwhelming the rest of the sound to where you hear nothing else. Third, the horror samples. I know some people just hate these damned samples, which is fair enough, but along with being a huge metal fan, I am a huge horror fan, so I enjoy the samples that set the stage for the songs to follow. A couple favorites from this release are "Cannibal Feast", "Hacked Up for Barbecue" (gotta love how the drums and bass kick in during the last bit of the sample before the sample ends as the full band starts playing), and "Morbid Butchery". Honestly, this album has some of the best samples of Mortician's career and most of the samples on this particular album are really good, in general.

What all this adds up to is an album that is straight-forward, even simplistic, but memorable. It is also insanely heavy. The songs may not be technical, but that was never a goal Mortician had. Nobody sounded like this at the time, and even though there are a number of bands that emulate Mortician's sound in more recent years (such as Carnivorous Vagina and Fluids, among others), I would still argue nobody quite sounds the same, close though they may get. This is also a fun album. I have been listening to this album for well over twenty years at this point and I still enjoy cranking it. The songs are just as infectious as they were to me back in the '90s when the album was new. It is just two guys bashing out some killer songs and having a good time doing it (in between horror movie viewings, of course). They didn't try to do whatever was popular, but instead did things their own way, whether anybody got it or not.

Mortician is a brutal death metal and grindcore band from New York. They are best known for being the "Anthrax" of the Big 4 of New York death metal since they don't get as much attention compared to the other three bands: Suffocation, Immolation, and Incantation. However, Mortician are probably the most difficult of the four to get into due to their brutal deathgrind sound. Hacked Up for Barbecue is probably the best example of this statement.

One reason is due to the fact that there are quite a few microsongs on Hacked Up for Barbecue. As such, the microsongs are more often associated with Mortician's grind influences as the blast beats are faster and more prevalent on these types of songs. The longer songs like "Bloodcraving" and the title track benefit from the samples from various horror films; in this case they would be When a Stranger Calls and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre respectively. These types of songs would generally begin with the sample and the music would follow. There are over a dozen horror films that are sampled within Hacked Up for Barbecue, each containing the more suspenseful clips from the respective films. It helps make sure that Mortician use horror tropes without going super cheesy like Cradle of Filth does.

It may not be Halloween for a while but Roger J. Beaujard's guitars utilize a more extreme version of the buzzsaw that Entombed had pioneered six years prior to this album. Hacked Up for Barbecue takes light of the drum machine, as it would've been difficult for a human drummer to play on a brutal deathgrind album. Will Rahmer on the other hand has taken everything he learned from his time in Incantation and applied them in a more aggressive and relentless manner. Rahmer's bass displays a ton of fuzz and is also beneficial to the density of the music displayed on Hacked Up for Barbecue. In terms of vocals, Rahmer is very similar to Craig Pillard, but has a more gurgly approach to the vocals. This style of vocals would prove to be an influence on numerous bands in both brutal death metal and its subgenre, slam death metal.

Many people will write off Mortician due to their association to brutal death metal. However, as one of the pioneers of the subgenre, they are as just as essential as other pioneers like Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, and Skinless. Hacked Up for Barbecue is a perfect amalgamation of the brutal death metal and grindcore genres, with a unique Halloween season twist. It's not an album for everyone, but those who do choose to listen to Hacked Up for Barbecue will be rewarded with some of the greatest brutal death metal known to mankind. As such, it is definitely recommended, especially to fans of horror films and the Mortal Kombat series of video games.

"What do you want?"
"Your Blood. All over me."

This is it. The is the be all end all of brutal death metal,and for me personally, metal in general. Sure, in my opinion "Chainsaw Dismemberment" is even better, but goddamn, I can't deny that both albums are flawless.

Mortician is a band you either love or hate. Some find the horror samples to long, the vocals too inaccessible, and the drum machine annoying, but sick horror freaks like me love them for all those reasons. Mortician have an atmosphere unmatched by any other band. Sure, many have tried like Torsofuck and Carnivorous Vagina but they can't live up to it, and boy do they show their chops on "Hacked up for Barbecue".

In a sense, "Hacked up for Barbecue" is a lose concept album based around the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films (as is "Chainsaw Dismemberment"),and boy do they nail the atmosphere of those films perfectly here. Grimy production,thick heavy as fuck guitar tone, distorted bass, rumbling drums, and of course Will Rahmer's iconic low vocals all make every song feel like the soundtrack to a gore filled 80s slasher film. Every element of this album is nailed perfectly and compliments everything so well that it just makes it so fucking flawless.

Songs on this album are pretty short for the most part, with the longer songs beginning with horror samples and the shortest songs being grindcore like bursts of anger. As I said before many may find these samples annoying, but as someone who loves and has seen the movies they sample here I think it works great. Samples flow into the songs very well and set the mood and tone for what you're about to hear. These songs just wouldn't be nearly as fun without the samples honestly.

Best track on here by far is either the opener "Bloodcraving", the title track, or "Necrocannibal", all of which have the best riffs on the album. But don't let that fool you into thinking this whole album isn't full of disgusting, sick, and hard hitting caveman riffs because it's full of them from front to back.

"Hacked up for Barbecue" might be found by some to be complete garbage, but if you have the stomach for it, want to start your journey into the land of 90s brutal death metal, or just want to see where most of the brutal bands of the past 20 years got their inspiration from, this album is definitely for you.10/10. "It's never over." Indeed.

This is brutal death metal.

Make no mistake, though - Mortician really doesn't sound much like Disgorge, or technical wank like Decrepit Birth, or slam like Cephalotripsy, besides a few superficial, minute aesthetics. Mortician exists in their own world of horror, distortion and blasts, caring nothing for trends or new developments in the world of death metal.

The sound here is almost inhuman - it’s as if this was made by primitive, mindless Neanderthals or demons from the deepest regions of Hell. Imagine a giant zombie that has been buried for 1000 years and is rising from the grave, and you might have an idea of what Will Rahmer's vocals sound like. Ridiculously deep, and articulation is almost non-existent, not that it is really needed in a band like this, anyway. His bass tone is distorted to fuck, and threatens to overwhelm the guitar. The man is primarily responsible for the subterranean quality of Mortician's music. Roger Beaujard's guitar playing is exactly what the demands of the music require, with almost no solos present, except short bursts of whammy bar and wild notes. Again, very distorted, although not as much as the bass. Particularly sharp sounding too, like a chainsaw, which fits the style of Mortician perfectly.

The infamous drum machine... what would Mortician be without it? Noticeably weaker, if Zombie Massacre Live is anything to go by! The drum programming is schizophrenic - you could never mistake this for a real drummer. Hyper speed, almost industrial blasting one moment, and then slowed down to a slow, dirge groove the next, with abrupt alternating between the two. These slower moments is the real strength of Mortician and where the music comes into its own - the blasting sections are fast, furious frenzy, but when things slow down, things really become EVIL, with such a feel of unhinged derangement and demented bloodlust that I have not heard in any other band. The blast and groove sections also complement each other perfectly - without both elements present, it simply would not be Mortician.

Discussing the songwriting is almost a futile endeavour, because a) Mortician's sound and atmosphere is not conducive to "songs", per se and b) this is an album that needs to be listened to in entirety from beginning to end, as a cohesive whole. That being said, however, "Necrocannibal" and "Bloodcraving" are two standouts, with the former being an entirely slow, groove-laden song, with no blasts present and being very catchy indeed, while the latter benefits from a great opening sample, and when the song begins sample and song combine to give an extremely effective atmosphere of blood. Speaking of the samples, they are all from various horror and sci-fi films. To be honest, some don't really add anything to the song, but some, like the one for "Bloodcraving", work perfectly. It also adds somewhat of a human element to the band’s sound... very slightly. The lyrics match the music - simple, gory, horror-obsessed and to the point. In another band, they would be much too basic, but here they complement the music perfectly.

All Mortician albums are interchangeable, to a certain extent, but this is their best, by having the best songs and an utterly engrossing atmosphere - this is an album that you can listen to from start to finish and lose yourself in the bludgeoning bloodlust. Also, the production is entirely fitting. Very distorted, but clear, and monstrously heavy. Probably the best production they ever had, which is where later albums like Domain of Death and Darkest Day of Horror falter - both very monotonous albums, but not in a good way, as is present here. And Mortician NEEDS distorted, apocalyptic bass and heaviness.

This is music that you either get or you don't. Love or hate - there is no middle ground. And I don't think Mortician really care either way.

When you put grindcore, brutal death metal, horror movies, and distorted bass guitars into a blender, Mortician is the product, proving that indeed, it will blend. Mortician’s unique deathgrind musical stylings were perfected in their debut, the brutal batch of blood soaked bludgeonings and skull smashing sounds known as “Hacked Up For Barbecue”. Overflowing with growls from the guttural depths of the rotting corpses that adorn the cover art (as only Will Rahmer can provide), sickening samples from horror classics, relentless drum machine blasts, grinding, chugging, and slamming chromatic riffs, and of course a relentless rumble of bass solos, this is the peak of the formaldehyde dripping brutality that defines the music of Mortician. From start to finish Mortician spews utter aural obliteration, be it with the slow crushing slams or the rabid high-speed grinds, Mortician gets the job done.

We begin the onslaught with “Bloodcraving”, a superb opener with a perfectly creepy and morbid horror movie intro from “When a Stranger Calls”. The song blasts away and makes the repetition of the same atonal sequence enjoyable by really making use of dynamics – going from a tremolo blast to a slow palm muted chug that keeps the brutality flowing but allows a little space to breathe. The album continues on with devastating micro-songs intermediated by longer (and by “longer” I mean exceeding a minute and a half) tracks that are only such because usually they are accompanied by a movie sample taking up nearly a half of the song. On rare occasion they will deliver a full, sample-free song that crosses the three-minute mark like in “Necrocannibal”, a great track and deserved fan favourite. Just as rarely songs will feature some tremolo, malodorous melodies approaching conventionality, which tend to still be awesome. The whole album reeks of the remnants of a mortuary scavenged by a pack of leprous cannibals out for a fetid feast. Unlike many brutal death metal/deathgrind bands, Mortician made an album that one can genuinely enjoy listening the whole way through quite easily. “Hacked Up For Barbecue” is simply a deathgrind masterpiece.

The guitars, played by Roger J. Beaujard, are distorted and down tuned beyond anything since attempted, and perfectly fit the uber-guttural sound of the entire album. During slower, and thus more distinguishable passages, Beaujard executes excellent chromatic chugging with mastery. During the break-neck grinding sections of the songs, the notes are significantly less decipherable over the drums, bass, and guttural drones. The drum programming, also by Beaujard, are well coordinated. The drums merely serve their purpose, providing mechanical yet brutal blast beats where needed, but are rarely anything worthy of the spotlight. The bass, performed by the mighty Will Rahmer, is purely monstrous. It has a sound unlike any bass guitar you are likely to hear, even amongst the death metal and grindcore crowd. It can only really be described as the infinitely deepest and guttural sound audible to the human ear. Conjured up from the blackest depths of hell itself, Will Rahmer’s bass is little more than a stomach-churning rumble that requires some truly quality subwoofers to be fully appreciated. Many of the riffs of the album are introduced with the bass, building the sick anticipation for the abominable grinds about to blow your brains out the back of your head.

Along the lines of the utmost guttural, Will Rahmer’s vocals are a major component of the awe this album inspires. They are the definition of guttural; supremely deep grunts that make you question how human these people are. The lyrics are almost completely indistinguishable from the poorly enunciated growls, but to be honest, no one cares, or ever should. The lyrics themselves are minimal, and follow the concept of whatever movie the song has sampled. Many of these movies are absolute classics, including “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Phantasm”, “Maniac”, “The Fog”, and other cult classics. Though sometimes the movie samples really become tiresome if they play too long, as they sometimes do, like in “Savage Butchery”. This doesn’t necessarily take away from the music but can be somewhat annoying.

Regardless of its more minor flaws, the whole album is a spectacle of deathgrind brutality, and a significant influence on death metal and goregrind bands to follow in nearly every possible manner. The music is brutal, varying in speed, and thoroughly enjoyable. It introduces a whole new way to combine the most extreme of music, and even new ways to be brutal beyond belief – see the slam scene. The movie samples, though somewhat tiresome are really all part of the classic experience. “Hacked up for Barbecue” is, and ever shall be, a masterpiece of grinding, slamming, and guttural brutal death metal.

In a medium where musicianship, variation, atmosphere and extremity all contribute to a band's broader appeal, it's very easy to understand why a group like Mortician is so often raked over the coals. No one can really argue that the fourth characteristic is in ample supply on their records, but at the same time, the first three are often severely lacking. This is not an act which prides itself on melody, memorable songwriting or accessibility to a wide fan base, but instead on unswerving, unapologetic momentum and gruesome lyrical themes which explore the primary and primitive motives of extreme gore and horror. That said, any childishness inherent in the compositional style is deliberate to its concept: it becomes difficult to fault Will Rahmer and Roger Beaujard for a lack of innovation or nuance to their writing, when this very aesthetic of saturated primacy is in of itself distinct.

Hacked Up for Barbecue was the first proper full-length recording after a trio of cult EP predecessors, to which it stylistically adheres, though the production is taken to a new level. The low-tuned, pummeling palm muted grooves hail from a convocation of early grindcore (Napalm Death, Repulsion and even Carcass) influences and a dash of Hellhammer's infernal darkness. Sodden, cheapened death/thrash sequences very often erupt in the midst of some loping, roiling chassis, and there are numerous occasions of accelerated tremolo picking which is sure to honor Mortician's Floridian forebears like Obituary or 80s Death. All of this is enveloped in a muscular tone with a lot of bite to the mutes, to the point that even the simplest and familiar riffing sequences experience a new sense of grave-dirt richness. But perhaps more distinguished is the speaker rupturing bass sound, soaked in so much distortion that it sounds like static in a submarine, or like mud being slowly churned into a fine paste. If you've experienced a lot of noise music, Rahmer's tone is very much compared to much of the low-end filtering that often occurs. It's not impossible to follow his note configurations, which generally mirror the guitar, but it adds this real sense of ominous sickness to the mix.

The drums on this and many Mortician records have been programmed by Beaujard, but their hostile and mechanical nature has somehow always worked within the context of this very unnatural songwriting. The combination of these soulless beats with the mucky bass and depraved guitars often recalls industrial greats like Godflesh, but this comparison ends with Rahmer's monotonous, low-end barbarian growls, which could probably be attached to some sonic voice and used to burst kidney or gall stones. There's not much variation here, a fact that often draws the ire of many listeners, but Rahmer's inflection is so flush with the surrounding guitars and bass-lines that I just couldn't imagine it any other way. He is what he is, and he's never pretended otherwise. Their effect might come off sillier than, say, Craig Pillard's stint with Incantation in the early 90s, but there's no question that they provide most of what we'd consider 'atmosphere' to this music. If there were a lot more than an occasional rasp or scream, for example, it likely wouldn't possess that same, thuggish charm or consistency.

Like Impetigo, Mortician was a band that relied very heavily on samples to break up the brunt of the riffs' sameness, to the point that you can gather up your horror buff buddies and play a game of 'name that film' as you listen through. I'll give the duo some credit, because they're quite good at picking bits of slasher flicks, cult sci-fi/exploitation and other chillers to intro particular tracks, and they don't use these 100% of the time. In particular, a lot of the shorter pieces like "Abolition" and "Inquisition" eschew the ritual entirely to get a jump start on beating your face in with their robust, necrotic sludge tones. But where they work, they really work, like how the phone conversation from When a Stranger Calls inaugurates "Bloodcraving" (and the whole album), or the narration from The Road Warrior sets up "Apocalyptic Devastation". The lyrics are all quite focused on simplistic, to the point imagery, influenced heavy by how they were handled on a record like Death's Scream Bloody Gore. Often pitifully brief even in a longer track ("Necrocannibal)", but nonetheless an aesthetic match for the under-sculpted music.

Unlike Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, which lost me due to the rather uninspired riffing patterns, Hacked Up for Barbecue manages to hold my interest due largely to that rich, juicy tone, like a fat undead steak that I want to plunge my rotten teeth into. The actual chord progressions aren't incredibly interesting, and rarely does a single tune contain more than 2-3 of them, often played at varying speeds alternated between chord and palm mutes of the same sequence. Still, they do choose some opportune moments to break out into some saucy, corpulent thrashing or virulent death metal assaults that break up the predictability of the big, deep grooves Mortician subsists upon. As a result of these and the well implemented samples, Hacked Up doesn't ever grow tiring or exceedingly repetitive through the 50 minutes and 24 tracks...

Granted, this album could be better, with more solid riffs per song, and perhaps a few wilder leads or eerie, atonal melodies produced through the guitars that would give it a much desired extra dimension without it abandoning that signature, psychotic bluntness, that direct attitude. Their 2001 effort Domain of Death is the album I find myself most returning to, but I have to say Hacked Up for Barbecue places a strong second in their discography. It's not a remarkable effort by any means, but there's something so livid and fresh about its approach, and the varied ingredients congeal into an 'endearing' neolithic sense of purity and hostility. I've opened up for the band some years ago, and seen them perform other times, and they really carry this primal grind into the live setting, only it's loud enough that you might start defecating your own innards. Not much sentience or wit beyond a schoolground bully who finally finds himself with a meat cleaver in his grasp, while the teachers all have their backs turned...but then, to the sicker among us, is that not entertainment?

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I remember when I first started listening to Mortician...a friend of mine and I hung out and we both went to the mall, where we proceeded to stride into F.Y.E. and he found the band's "House by the Cemetery" compilation (which featured that EP as well as some early demos and other rare goodies!!) and let me listen to it. My initial reaction was "why the fuck are all the samples so long?", but eventually I ended up getting this CD (my mom bought it for me for Christmas!) and soon became a Mortician enthusiast despite not really knowing much else from this ultra-brutal genre of death metal.

Is this brutal death metal? Is this grind core? Is this gore death grind? Well, I don't really know or care. Personally I'd rather just say the band plays "death metal" and be done with it...why have all these silly labels that are only counter-productive to the overall development of the genre? What you can expect to find on Mortician's "Hacked Up for Barbeque" is in essence a pretty decent slab of what you could find on any death / grind CD...ultra deep growls, brutal riffs, and gore-soaked lyrics...Mortician have it all! However, many of the tracks on this album feature lengthy, often disturbing horror movie samples which usually reflect the song's meaning (for instance, "Mortician" features a "Phantasm" sample and has lyrics that reference "Phantasm" rather blatantly), but also can be boring and pointless. The title track, "Hacked Up for Barbeque", reflects this perfectly as it features a two-minute sample from the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's climax (where the girl gets chased around by Leatherface and then gets put on meathook while forced to watch her boyfriend be dismembered...blah blah blah), and while that's a cool scene and all, it doesn't really make any sense for it to be a sample...but then again who am I to judge? As long as the band brings the goods eventually...sigh...I guess I can wait. And besides, some of these samples are damn cool too, such as in "Mortician" which features the line from Phantasm, or "Cannibal Feast", "Apocalyptic Devastation", and "Witches Coven" even features the infamous theme song from "Suspiria", so thus counts as a genius sample as well.

The music itself has a very minimalistic approach to song-writing, with songs often featuring only 2-3 riffs which take after the likes of Celtic Frost, Morbid Angel, and Obituary. While simple, the riffs are catchy, songs like "Inquisition", "Decapitated", "Hacked Up for Barbeque", and "Cremated" will have you air-drumming, head banging, playing air guitar, etc. all at the same time. Other songs show off a slower, doomier sound similar to what Bolt Thrower and Incantation were doing at the time, most notably the brooding insanity of "Fog of Death". Guitar leads are rare, but nonetheless, you can hear them in tracks like "Abolition" (over a thick, Bolt Thrower-esque groove), and in "Embalmed Alive". The vocals are deep, guttural moans which never change in pitch, nor their inhumanity. Other vocalists like Craig Pillard, Chris Barnes, etc. all added little hints of their humanity into their vocals...but Will Rahmer does not do anything like that. His vocals remain guttural, inhuman, and utterly demonic for the entire album's length, which is a true feat considering these styles of growls are extremely hard to emulate.

It's too bad that Mortician is so overlooked in the heavy metal community, as they certainly have a lot to offer in the way of pure, unadulterated fun. Is this art? Fuck no. But is this fun and extremely soul-shatteringly heavy? You bet your sweet, candy-apple ass it is!! I don't listen to this CD all the time, but when I'm in the mood for something that is brutal, fun, and overall extremely entertaining and loveable, this is the ideal CD to play. I'll take off some points because I thought that the samples should have been shortened up just a tad in some places, but when it comes to brutal death/grindcore, this album really hits the mark as one of the heaviest and most consistently entertaining albums I have ever heard. Hopefully you'll love it as much as I did!!

Ah! Mortician. I fantasize about listening to this album by placing it over an old school horror film like “The Mutilator” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” There are no gimmicks here. The album is comprised of several short songs about ways an individual can be destroyed. The music features heavy but steady guitar playing accompanied by hoarse, incoherent vocals.

The band uses samples from the horror genre and places it between the songs, not in them, which are a plus for me, and add to the atmosphere of the horror cheesiness in the music instead of taking away from like bands that tend to use oversampling of material. Though the music can be repetitive at times, especially with the drum machine, and few songs are memorable, the overall experience was enjoyed by me as a horror and death metal fan.

Mortician is straightforward with this album and expect no surprises. There is just an onslaught of songs that come at you over and over with the occasional screaming and sounds of hacking in between provided by the samples. For what this band tried to do with album, which I assume was to create the atmosphere of horror, they succeeded, and I had a fun time listening to it.

Everyone has a different opinion about death metal. Some only go for old-school stuff like Cannibal Corpse, and others go for other stuff. I have never seen though, with a few exceptions, a band as brutal as Mortician.

Basically, Mortician tunes their bass (a big part of their music) about as low as it can get, distort it super high, to the point where it is just senseless noise. Their guitar doesn’t fair much better, but the real shining point here is the vocals and the drums. In a sea of noise, the drums really hold things together. I will never understand why people can’t stand drum machines, artificial drums, etc. They can be quite accurate and that is definitely the case here. Also, the vocals are extremely brutal, way lower than maybe any death metal vocalist ever. Imagine Chris Barnes with a throat disease with a pitch changed so low it is a few steps above underwater vocals.

Though the album has many strong points, it is definitely far from perfect. Though there is an abundance of songs (over thirty, ranging from a few seconds to three minutes), they are mostly dominated by cheap old-school horror movie quotes/sound effects. The typical song on this album is some lame sound byte of a guy getting chopped up (for like half the song’s length), a few seconds of super-distorted bass, then the song. I find it painfully annoying after a while, but some songs, such as “Necrocannibal” (ironically the best on the album) doesn’t have one.

Overall, this is a perfectly fine death metal release, but I would recommend much more than hitting the replay button on YouTube instead of your CD player, because this just isn’t worth it. Notable tracks: Fog of Death, Necrocannibal.

This is Mortician's first 'official' full-length album, and probably their best, although all Mortician albums are great (excluding the live one which even I can't excuse). It's the most atmospheric of them all, it's got great, thick production, and apart from the great, memorable songs, the unmemorable ones are still great while they're being played. All in all, it's a great death/grind record that I listen to constantly due to its unbelievably consistency. It's a great album, and Mortician are a great band.

I'm not entirely sure why so many people criticize Mortician, because everything you say to theoretically criticize the band can be refuted by saying that, well, it's Mortician, and you can't criticize them for what they are. The songs are just mindless blasting and tremolo or stupid chugging? No shit, it's Mortician. The bass is just noise and the vocals are completely indecipherable grunting? No shit, it's Mortician. All the songs sound the same, the band uses the same riffs over and over, and they don't even seem to try to make actual songs? No shit, it's Mortician. How can you really attempt to criticize the band for this stuff? THAT IS THE BAND. The whole IDEA of Mortician is mindless brutality and a horrific atmosphere, and anything above and beyond those two elements is a bonus. Insulting Mortician for the way they sound is like going up to a champion pole vaulter and getting on their case for not being awesome at synchronized swimming. They're there to vault pole, dumbass, not to swim, so stop being retarded.

Okay, so if you don't know Mortician, the average song is made of a hyperfast, hyperobvious drum machine, insanely downtuned tremolo riffing, noisy, tuneless, ultra-distorted bass, and similarly ultra-low growls from Will Rahmer. There are other songs which revolve more around slow, chugging riffs and slower (but still really obvious) drum machine, and everything else is the same; generally it breaks into a blast at one point anyway, so there's little difference. There's a stock horror movie sample at the beginning of nearly every track. Riffs are reused CONSTANTLY and are really more useful as another layer of noise than they are at communicating any sort of melody. In general, the blasting sections are really more noise than anything, as it's just a collection of drum machine rattling, indecipherable tremolo riffs, and churning vocals. They're there to be brutal and nothing more, just as the samples are designed to introduce atmosphere and nothing more. There is nothing multilayered about this album.

The riffs that Mortician use are not death metal riffs. I'd say they're pretty much grindcore riffs minus the punk. The slower sections are very death metal influenced (and have older influences like Celtic Frost as well), but all the tremolo riffs have not a trace of metal in them. However, it's more that they don't have a trace of ANYTHING in them. If you look at a tab for a Mortician song in its blasting sections, you'll clearly see riffs that have NOTHING to do with death metal. They aren't composed with any purpose; they're essentially random notes strung together because they needed a riff (because they need the guitar noise) and you won't be able to tell the melody anyway under the blast beat. This is why you see meaningless, tuneless 4-3-2-1 riffs throughout Mortician's catalog; it's because the band doesn't care and they're completely unimportant anyway.

The blasting sections are just used as filler between the slow and mid-paced bridges, and THAT'S where Mortician comes into their own. Consider the blasting sort of a necessary evil to give the mid-paced sections the gravity they need. Slow Mortician tracks are some of the most crushing metal songs ever made, like on 'Fog Of Death' or 'Witches' Coven', which both pack insanely brutal and heavy riffs into essentially meaningless song structures. They're not really groovy, just punishing, and you really can see the influence that Mortician has on later brutal and slam death bands on tracks like 'Inquisition', with probably the most convoluted chug riff on the album. They get you headbanging, but not moving. The music is just completely brute force from square one to end. If you can't appreciate brute force, though, you're just not going to enjoy it.

In actuality, it's hard to communicate any real description of the music on this album because it's so brute and innate. You could kind of say that this is death metal stripped of the 'metal' part; unlike other bands, you can't really trace Mortician back to Morbid Angel or Possessed or any of the extreme thrash bands, or even to Napalm Death or the oldschool grind artists. They just sort of came out of nowhere and have been perpetually existing since then. There's such a sharp delineation between when the band is actually trying and when they're not that it's impossible not to notice; you can tell by how much more coherent the riffs and drum programming are in the groove sections, where the blasting and gore-polka stuff ala Cock And Ball Torture are just there to be there and give more meat to the music. It's practically death metal dadaism, because Mortician proves that you only need to try where effort is a necessity.

Every track on this album sounds essentially the same. How can you criticize that, though? It's unbelievably mono-dimensional, as it intends to be, and as it SHOULD be. There is atmosphere; there's a primitive brutality that's genuinely ominous, and actually gets communicated as much through the mindless brutality as it is the more written chugging. It seems to reflect a sort of creepy, psychotic, utterly emotionless feel that isn't replicated anywhere else, where death and gore are sought for death and gore themselves. I can't even say that this album is primitive, because it almost seems like a glimpse into the future, at death metal's ultimate endpoint: a pure expression of brutality with no thought or philosophizing getting in its way. I don't even know why they bothered to write lyrics.

This album is perfect at what it is supposed to be. It's beyond criticism on the terms of any 'normal' music, because this isn't normal music. It's Mortician, and it has to be judged as such. Listen to it if you get it, but don't complain if you don't.

Good ole gory death metal... with drum machines?! That was my initial thought once I heard this album from a friend of mine, looking at the band line up. It's my first to hear a death metal group with drum machines, but for some strange reason, it doesn't bother me that much to know this. Usually, bands with drum machines would leave fans to lose musical respect for a group, but this group knows how to use their machines! Though, that's not why this album didn't get a pretty high rating, just take a listen to the album if you dare.

For one, look at the lengths of each track. Okay, now here's where you might need a calculator... unless you're a math wiz, then try this problem. Take each track length (most approximately 1:10, the longest could be 4:00), and subtract all the time lengths by 40 seconds (try the longest time, which is approximately 2:45 or even 3:30.) What you're subtracting from the music is the stuff that is NOT the music! You're subtracting audio that is stock footage; audio taken from horror movies and so on. Have you done the math yet? Well let’s see... the total play time of the album is about 49:00, and when you subtract all the non-music stuff, you get the total play time of approximately 34:00! It's more like an EP than an LP after all! Math can be fun!!!

My point here is that the tracks, some being way too short, are even shortened by the stock footage used! Almost all of the songs start with some horror audio footage which, for us music fans, would actually want to hear the metal, not some audio of some man talking about eating gilded cunts! If I wanted to hear those stock footages, then I would rent the horror movies used in the CD. This is a musical CD, not a "soundtrack to the lines used in horror movies." In all, the music is shorter than you think with the annoying 2:00 intros to them! I guarantee you that your pointing finger would be hurting after a while, constantly holding the fast forward button in order to skip all the useless audio!

Next bad thing about this album is the redundancy of sound. Pass all the audio rubbish, and you will hear that the music can sound very redundant. Each time you switch the tracks, they seem to be very predictable and boring. It's constant blast beating (from the drum machines), mediocre riffs (bass wise and guitar wise) with hardly any solos and the vocals... I should say growls. Growls is not even the term, it's just grunts. I was listening to the album and I hear nothing but growls behind all the very distorted guitars and "broken sound" bass and I thought "well this is cool that the songs are composed of nothing but grunts," thinking that there are no lyrics to the album. To my surprise, there are lyrics! And for what anyway?! Allow me to quote for you fellow metalheads:

Track number 14 is called Abolition, and the lyrics read something like this (cute little lyrics I might add):

"Rotting corpses
Rats feeding on dead flesh
Crumbling buildings
Aftermath of the earth."

Now here is how it actually sounds:

"Rrrgrrrgh Cruugh
Rauggh Eeegh Uh Deaagh Bleauuugh
Ruuunnghin Bwuuughs
Efffughtas Ugh Duuegh Urggnth"

Its roughly translated, but all around, this is how the album sounds. I understand that there are groups which do this "grunt" style vocals like Cryptopsy, but at least there is range in such group’s vocal style. Plus, you can actually follow along with the lyrics in the book; with Mortician, there is no range - the vocals are very monotonous. I can do growls like that... you can do growls like that... my grand daddy can do that (sounds like it when he coughs), anyone can do vocals like that. There is no talent behind the vocal style. Who am I though to complain about the vocal style, it sounds alright in this album and for a group like them with all the instrument distortion. It's vile and messy sounding as the music is. Still, why have lyrics?!

Now the positive stuff... they're alright I feel despite the mediocrity behind their music. Mediocre doesn't always mean that a group sucks, some of the catchiest, most moshable things come out of mediocrity. This album has some real heavy hitters and memorable riffs. Tracks like "Bloodcraving," "Embalmed Alive," "Cremated," "Cannibal Fest," and the album titled track "Hacked Up For Barbeque." These songs are sure to get you feasting on some decaying corpses and craving for some evil blood... or in short, headbanging! This album galore riffs and the bass, for some strange reason, sounds cool. It has a sort of eerie vibe, being so down-tuned and so, so, so... “un-trebled”! I don't know how to explain it but it sounds cool on this album. The drum machines galore with blast beats and double bassing... it sounds so damn perfect... but oh wait a minute, it's a machine! It's meant to be like that. I'll hand it to Mortician for playing with a drum machine because it's not like playing with someone who you can tell to slow down or to wait a second. This album must have been difficult to record I can imagine.

Please don't get me wrong about Mortician; they are one pretty damn brutal-as-fuck band. They're considered one of the heaviest groups in the world, but that's debatable. Down tuning doesn't make a group heavy, but their riffs and bassing make them a group mosh worthy. This album is for the fans of the likes of Dying Fetus, Skinless, Exhumed, Devourement and so on. They're gory based music will definitely get you to amputate yourself apart into a bloodbath... that is if you don't mind the redundancy of the music and the horror audio. Buy this album if you dare... just one question. Why do they have lyrics?!

Ear Catchers: Hacked Up For Barbeque, Bloodcraving, Cremated, Embalmed Alive, Cannibal Fest, Fog Of Death...