Brain Cleaner

There is a trend of bashing Mortification in these pages recently, and at first I thought it weas simply because of the Christian lyrical content. But after a buddy of mine insisted on copying this CD for me so I could hear it, I gave the old listen or three and realized; the others are right to bash them.

At least "Scrolls of the Megilloth" had a serious edge and some heaviness to accompany the relentlessly, heavyhandedly Christian lyrical approach, as well as an evil guitar crunch. This is more castrated and weak to say the least. It has a sound musically that is somewhat reminiscent of Sodom in their thrashier moments, when they got their act together musically--in fact, the bass riff for opener "Boaconstrictor" sounds an awful lot like "Sodomy and Lust". And Steve Rowe does own up to having been influenced by Sodom (before he became a Christian, of course) so I can see that. But this is where the comparison ends, as Mortification now utterly lack anything resembling balls or character or intensity.

As opposed to death metal, this is now simple and boring wannabe thrash metal with no attitude, edge, or focus. The lyrics now seem even more simpleminded and the vocals are weak attempts at Hetfield-style growling that come off as forced and uninspired. It's as though Rowe knows his market and is attempting to cater to it blatantly, writing weak and diluted attempts at metal to not offend the Christian market--but this is on Metal Blade, for crying out loud! A non-Christian label that has nonetheless seen its salad days fall far behind it and suck out loud now (as opposed to the glory days of the 80s), and you'd think that Rowe would know enough to realize that to cater to the secular market you need to really grab them musically. On this weak release they don't even come close to trying, and knowing how good they once were makes this even harder to listen to.

If you are into hearing a Christian band who are what Mortification wish they could be, minus obvious and heavyhanded lyrics and plus savage musical shredding, Sweden's Crimson Moonlight are far better. Their lyrics are more indirect and subtle, comparatively speaking, and secular bangers won't be as eager to bash them on that front alone. And as an atheist I can clearly state that.

Mortification are a very, very pale shadow of what they once were musically, and need to pack it in, simple as that. They've become the Christian scene's answer to Slayer, much as I hate to make the comparison; weak, irrelevant, and ultimately pointless. Pack it in, Steve, it's a worthless battle now.