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Mortification > The Best of Five Years > Reviews
Mortification - The Best of Five Years

Not their best - 50%

Kalelfromkrypton, January 5th, 2010

You could say I am being too merciless but when it comes to ‘Best of’ I tend to be really picky, because, well, best of is supposed to be ‘best of’ and not what just sounded in the radios or music TV shows or was played live.

Let me tell you what ‘Best Of’ Mortification would sound like, because for those of us who have followed the band’s career this is nothing but a boring compilation. Even for those who have never heard the band some of the songs are definitely not their best. They were chosen because they were ‘hits’. But, in the death metal scene can we call a song a ‘hit’? They are supposed to put the best because of the riffs, the vocals, the drumming, the song writing and not weird shit. This is very much the same thing as the ‘Best Of’ from Obituary: boring and lacking the best songs.

‘Blood sacrifice’ and ‘New beginnings’ are more than ok and perfect to show their early thrash beginnings (pun intended). ‘Until the End’, ‘No Return’ or ‘Satan’s doom’ would be the ones to be included, not that atrocity of ‘Destroyer beholds’ with that punkish vibe. ‘Nortunal’ although good and ‘Scrolls of the Megilloth’ being the title track pale to ‘Terminate Damnation’ and ‘Eternal Lamentations’.‘Grind Planetarium’ is an extreme poor option since it is too weird due to its constant change of speed and weird tempo. Not to mention the simplistic drum patters and boring flow. I’d have put ‘Through the Valley of the shadows’ from Post Momentary Affliction as a better choice along with ‘Distarnish Priest’ which is there and it is a good slow song. The live songs are really not necessary so I’d have put more good songs from studio albums but anyhow, let’s continue with our count. Next from Blood World I’d have put ‘Symbiosis and ‘Monks of the High lord’ which are easily the best songs from that album. Both songs from Primitive Rhythm Machine are definitely the best since they are powerful, tribal alike rhythms (Sepultura alike indeed), raw and definitely encompass the album.

So as you can see, even if you haven’t heard the band these songs are clearly not their best. Nevertheless, I understand that these are mainly accessible tunes which can be easily swallowed by any newcomer to the band and the songs aren’t that ‘’bad’’, it is just they are NOT their best. It is enjoyable though, I once had it but once you get the studio albums that compilation begins to get dusty. It is cool, though, the booklet where you can actually get a good picture of the band’s career and information about their back catalog. The other good point to mention is, undoubtedly, the evolution you hear. Every album is different so you can pick up any style from them, depending on what you want to listen to, thus, this compilation is worthy for that sole purpose.