Domain of Death

Short version:

If you hated Mortician before, this one isn't going to change your mind, but if you did like Mortician before, you will probably dig this one too.

Long version:

Domain of Death is Mortician's third full-length album. However, if you are familiar with the band's previous releases, you will notice that this album is shorter and has fewer songs on it than the previous two full-lengths. Then there is the fact that two songs on this album are covers, much like the CD versions of House By the Cemetery and Zombie Apocalypse. Now, I am going off of memory from some interviews I read in the months before this album was released, but apparently the idea was initially to record an EP along the lines of the House By the Cemetery and Zombie Apocalypse CDs, but during the recording, Will and Roger ended up coming up with more ideas than were needed, so they basically decided to keep writing and turn the would-be EP in a full-length instead.

I will be upfront here and tell you outright that I really like this album. I first heard it by getting the limited tour edition before the artwork was ready, which I bought at a Mortician show. I remember cranking it in my truck that I had at the time repeatedly. I then bought the proper version with the full artwork, band photos, lyrics, etc. once it came out. After that, I bought the picture disc LP from Germany's Morbid Records. Finally, I snagged the gatefold LP edition from Hell's Headbangers.

Sound-wise, this album continues along the path Chainsaw Dismemberment was going, which had introduced some occasional bits of groove to the band's sound. Domain of Death also continues the recycling of riffs that Chainsaw Dismemberment featured a good bit of. Essentially, Roger would take an existing riff and just rearrange it, making it a "new" riff. Maybe it was easier when working with the drum machine, but I don't really know. For example, the opening song, "Brood of Evil", starts with the opening riff from "Lord of the Dead", just played more or less in reverse. Thankfully, he didn't do that for the entire song or for the entire album, for that matter, so it is not that big of an issue, especially since the worst examples of this recycling/rearranging are from the shorter "sneeze and you'll miss them" songs on the previous album and there are fewer instances of this on Domain of Death. The main other one I can think of on Domain is "Dr. Gore", which sounds pretty similar to Chainsaw's "Fleshripper". "Dr. Gore" is a good song, nonetheless.

One of the strengths of this album, however, is the riffs in general, recycling issue aside. A couple of good examples would be "Domain of Death" and "Telepathic Terror". "Domain of Death" opens (after the requisite horror movie sample, in this case, from Mark of the Devil) with a bass riff, before the full band joins in on the riff. It sounds like Mortician, but it doesn't blur with everything else the band has written. "Telepathic Terror", after a sample of the notorious "exploding head" scene from David Cronenberg's Scanners kicks off with a slow, ominous riff, which makes a really nice comeback at the end of the song, coinciding with a brief sample that is mixed into the song, something Mortician rarely does. It is quite a standout moment, in my opinion.

There is also a sequel element to this album, ending with the song, "Necronomicon Ex Mortis", which is a continuation of House By the Cemetery's "Noturam Demondo". The latter was influenced by The Evil Dead and the former by Evil Dead 2. This is something that seems to have carried over from the previous album which featured songs like the aforementioned "Lord of the Dead", as well as "Slaughterhouse (Part 2)".

Overall, I think the shorter length helps this album out. As much as I like Chainsaw Dismemberment, I think the band probably just included every song written around that time, whether it was really worth recording or not. Domain of Death's mere 17 songs compared to Hacked Up for Barbecue's 24 or Chainsaw Dismemberment's 28 keeps this album relatively free of throwaway songs/filler. This isn't the absolute best album by Mortician, but it is still among the top releases by the band. There are some great, memorable classics on here and the remaining songs are still well worth checking out.

Back in the 90’s I decided to buy a bass guitar with one of my income tax returns. It was a nice red and white Fender Precision with a 15 watt practice amp. Now generally, I’m right-handed person but I’m weird when it comes to sports, instruments, etc., in that I have to do things left-handed. The bass that I got was a right-handed one because I thought ‘hey, I should be able to pull this off’. Many months of practicing and yeah, I got a little better, but it still felt foreign and ‘not right’. One night, while drunk, I decided to turn every dial on it and the amp to max, just to annoy the shit out of my neighbour (because I can be an asshole like that). While, not knowing too much about instruments and sounds; I blew my amp out. The sounds that it made from there out were shit. It was a little disheartening, to say the least. Then I heard a Mortician song on a compilation. ‘Wait a minute’, I thought, ‘I can make the same sounds through my blown amp that this dudes’ making, and he’s got a record deal’. Never give up on your dreams…

Well, here we were in 2001 and nothing has changed with this band. Same programmed drums playing the same two-three patterns in every song, same tuned-to-mud guitars, same shitty microphone-swallowing vocals, same crap lyrics, and the same shitty, yet (pathetically) familiar sounding bass. Oh yes, I certainly can’t forget the same sound-sample gimmick that I swear is only in here to make the listener aware that the song changed.

‘Riff’ after ‘riff’, that sounds like the a (very) tiny variation of the ‘riff’ you just heard beforehand, all tied together with the same drum patterns that you know you just got finished hearing. ‘Din-dun-din-dun-din-dun’, mumble-mumble, blast. Rinse, repeat. Every fucking song. Throw in a sound sample here and there (which generally consist of some dude saying something ‘evil’, or some chick screaming, or both if you’re lucky) and you have the receipt for every single Mortician album in existence.

And they aren’t fooling anyone with song titles like ‘Extinction of Mankind’ and ‘Mutilation of the Human Race’, they’re pretty much that exact same song.

‘Bash your brains out with a hammer’…yeah, that sounds about right. I’m pretty sure that’s the state you have to be in to think this stuff is remotely decent.

Now I get that bands don’t have to progress in order to be relevant, or maintain a fan base. Hell, you don’t have to be Dream theater-like on your instruments, as most of the grindcore bands that I listen to would attest to, but come on, there has to be limits. When your music still sounds the exact same as your demo from 10+ years earlier, what’s the point? They have a consistent sound that works for them? So do Vader and Kataklysm…and it’s night and day in comparison. And who in the hell considers themselves fans of this stuff to begin with? I would have sworn Relapse was only releasing this garbage to troll the masses, but I know that I’d only be disappointed to find out the (brutal) truth.

Sadly, all this album needs is some Old MacDonald farm animal vocals added to it and it would fit in perfectly with the ‘brutal death metal’ of today. Maybe some SLAMS (yo) would help too.

God, this stuff is terrible *din-dun-din-dun-din-dun*. What song am I on now *din-dun-din-dun-din-dun*? Eight? Nope, apparently fourteen. And this is cover song too? If I were in Disastrous Murmur, I’d want these guys charged with sexual assault because they’re fucking this up badly. And they also did a cover of a Pungent Stench song too? What happened, they couldn’t find it in them to write another ‘din-dun-din-dun-din-dun’ tune again? Ran out of sound samples to use? Man, fuck this band.

…but at least the cover art is cool it’s just too bad it’s wasted here though. The stunned look on the chick’s face is pretty much the reaction that I had listening to this. It’s about the only thing brutal thing on this album.

Mortician is renound as being potentially "The heaviest band on the planet", with one of the heaviest sounds you could think of producing. That is apparently seems of their main purposes: to be as fast, heavy and inhumanly barbaric sounding as possible... possibly just for the sake of it (as if that would be a bad thing!). It goes without saying that they do a darn good job of this. There are not many bands that sound as fast, intolerantly regimented, detuned, guttural, yet simultaneously catchy/memorable as they do!

For those who don't know Mortician, they could be described as a Death Metal / Grindcore mix band… mainly: super-detuned, super heavy, large power-chord oriented music with militant, marching d-beat thrash sounds and super-fast, machine-gun-like drums blasting. Very fast, relentless, very heavy & brutal... all done in a occasionally repetitive yet memorable, catchy manner (which doesn't get boring at all, especially if you pay close attention to the finer details amongst the chaos and noise, if your ears can handle it!). Another way to describe them might be: a Stripped-down, sped up, beefed up Slayer... on STEROIDS. Stripped down, as in... Remove useless & irrelevant parts, and probably any remaining elements of humanity too... then crushing at warp speed regularly. So as you can imagine, whilst it may seem quite hard to fathom how much "heavier" one could possibly get as a band than Slayer at first, (being as heavy as Slayer is), Mortician still show you how, with ease. One of their best / most memorable aspects is the decision to include a fair amount of cult, old-school, obscure Horror film clips as intros and subject matter for their songs... and this album is no exception. Plenty of cool / rare clips that seem to help set the mood and add an extra vibe to the general theme and barbarity, not to mention making you aware of some great rare films a lot of people have never heard of.

Their album "Domain of Death" is no deviation from that grand legacy, with some interesting twists. This album is potentially Mortician's most "advanced" or futuristic and experimental-sounding album to date in their catalogue. They must have been tampering with modern guitar processors & sounds at the time... and came up with an interesting, solid new sound. This gives their very recognisable music an added warped, laser-like edge... and turns their trademark chainsaw guitar sound into something a little more digitalised... excellent! Perhaps inspired by their somewhat evolved style, they seen to have given this album more of a Sci-Fi sounding edge to their songs / song titles too (or at least some of the tracks sound like Sci-Fi films / themes), and it all fits very well. The production is solid and super heavy, albeit a little cleaner perhaps overall than usual... making their insane music a little more digestible also, especially for new listeners.

If you don't know Mortician, this album is one of the best albums to listen to first to try getting an idea of what they are about. They have a very recognisable, rigid, intentionally somewhat simplistic, mechanical sound... made that much better in our opinion by the relentlessness of a drum machine. The drum machine naturally keeps their music very uniform, precise and adds to their uniqueness (not many successful extreme bands with drum machines!)

So what does Domain of Death have to offer compared to other albums? Well aside from possibly somewhat more digestible production, it is arguably in the top 3-4 Mortician albums of all time, along with other millennium-era albums (some of their best in our opinion). This is definitely a top Mortician album, not just from a song or phrasing perspective but, due to the cool new production... definitely one of their best ever.

As for actual music, whilst there are a lot of similarities to the rest of their catalogue and their fairly recognisable grind-approach formula, they've added a few new twists presumably to go with the new sound... such as: Some very bizarre riff phrasing in quite a few tracks such as "Wasteland of Death". Whilst the phrasing is potentially some of the most catchy and clear on these tracks they've ever had... it's is actually harder to decipher how on Earth the guitarist is able to make such strange sounds but, it works well none the less! There's tracks like "Tenebrae"... an insanely brutal and relentless track yet, perhaps leaning on the comedy side... as it sounds like a sort of endless carousel-ride (of doom)! As for overall brutal, memorable tracks... there are a number. First of all you have tracks like "Bone Crusher" which literally does what it says on the tin so to speak, simply short, to the point and totally crushing. The title track "Domain of Death"....is another classic, with potentially their longest, most distorted bass intro ever - another classic trademark they've honed. To elaborate a little: After starting with a fitting horror sample setting the mood, the track begins with the bass buzzing away in the background akin to the rumblings of a brewing Earthquake.... before the rest of the track slams into your face like a 1000-ton freight train. Epic! You can't help wondering whether they were inspired by more modern / newer metal band releases on this track, as the phrasing is more simplistic and groove-based than ever... (another new, cool twist on this album). One track stands out however as being up there with some of their heaviest, and that is their "Extra Uterine Pregnancy" cover track. A good way of describing it might be an unrelenting, inhuman, military march of doom, from a fleet of super-human military tanks. Brutal! Yet it sounds quite different in some ways to the original bands version.... obviously much heavier, much more savage and needless to say far more professionally produced. This is perhaps one of their heaviest tracks ever recorded by them and, certainly is in the top heaviest sounds of ANY recorded band moment we can think of, ever, hands down (and we've heard a lot). Due to the solid production, you can turn the track volume right up loud on almost any decent sound system and it will sound immense... very brutal and insanely heavy... scaring the shite out of all manner of neighbours and lifeforms alike no doubt.

Now on the critical side... as for album negatives? The only slight downside to this album is the shorter track-length @ 17 tracks, a bit of a deviation from a lot of grind-like standards and the bands own catalogue. The limited track amount feels short compared their other full-lengths, especially considering a fair few of the tracks are around the 1 min mark; it can sometimes feel like a slightly extended EP. Other than that slight let-down, there really isn't much wrong with the album. It follows a similar functioning formula to their other albums and it works very well. It's a style. It's unique... its brutal and catchy, and this album is in good keeping with that tradition of original, very heavy, slamming death-grind music... with interesting horror theme vibe and some great new twists.

This band gets a little flak from some heavy fans who seem to not consider them to fit the preconceived "ideal / standard formula" of what some extreme metal bands are about but, we have a new theory for that: If you're one of these "haters" who gives a band a fake, unrealistically low review on here or elsewhere (e.g. a 1% usually blatantly false rating), it's not because they're total crap or not "musical"/complex enough (duh, Mortician is not meant to be!), it's probably more likely because your ears / mind is too weak, not accustomed to the sounds of a real extreme grindcore/metal mix band... and thus simply can't handle the harsh brutality and endlessness of it. You probably struggle to distinguish the skills amongst the often intentional repetitiveness, ...the distorted Earthquake bass,... the inhuman, relentless machine-gun battering of the drum machine, monotonous cryptic growls / gurgles and chainsaw laser-guitars... hammering away at your brains track after track... and don't wish to admit the shameful reality: you simply didn't have what it takes to complete a full Mortician album listening in 1 sitting. Perhaps it gave you a severe headache, your mental stamina just wasn't there? That's our theory but, whatever the excuse... a fake poor review is fake and lame. So, don't just bash the band for the sake of it or because it "sounded too noisy, buzzing blasting sounds (wah!)" and leave unrealistically poor reviews, try give your brain/ears a chance to adjust... and then attempt to understand the severity and stamina of the brutality and barbarity at hand, worthy of praise alone. Mortician is somewhat unique in a number of ways amongst extreme metal bands, some of which have been described above - and we say they are all positive traits that more bands could do with.

Overall: definitely one of their top albums… insanely heavy, brutal production and great riffs. Very catchy and memorable, great stuff. Worth checking out for newcomers and those acquainted with extreme metal alike!