In This Life

Fuck, shit, I had almost forgotten how awesome this album is! Yes, I mostly play Fools Game because I love it and it has an enormous sentimental value but in all honesty: In This Life is their masterpiece.

Let me start with the negative first: The production! I could not get used to it then nor can I now, 30 years later. It is metallic and very, very thin. I always have to adjust my stereo when playing it.

And now on the the music. Anyone who's into thrash metal knows their debut 'Fools Game' which was on the melodic side of thrash with a few funky elements thrown in (on two songs really, one being a cover). Yet on their second album 'In This Life' the balance between thrash and funk was further explored.

Sure, there still were a few thrash orientated songs as well here (In This Life, Window, Falling Away, Progress) but even those have plenty funky moments. Also: great riffs and catchy chorusses all around! And don't forget the flashy guitar solo's. And face it; "Falling Away" has one of the most beautiful thrash metal openings ever. Doesn't matter the following verse is rather dull because the melodic chorus makes up for it easily. Classic song for a reason.

And then there's the funk! 'The Strain' starts of like FNM-meets-RHCP and with Holderby's vocals this is a just a party. Middle section is damn groovy with a scratcher and the uptempo thrashing chorus really finishes it off. Amazing song! Talking about RHCP: 'High Potency' has the biggest eighties RHCP vibe of the album. Even the 'hooh' gangshouts give me that vibe.

They were even going slighty into ska teritory here already ('Downtown'). I am sure these guys were 2Tone fans because I am hearing hints of The Specials here and there in this song. Maybe that's just me and others might recognise The Police.

There were hardly any other metal bands incorporating funky music this good in 1991. Perhaps Suicidal but only very sporadic. Although the Infectious Grooves debut came out 10 months later.

I can't name any standouts really because the entire albums is one excellent trip. I could, with some effort, name only two songs which aren't as good as the rest (Killing Time & Larger than Life) but those are still pretty decent.

Passing by the Mordred page here, also being quite surprised to see just one review written on this album… strange provided that it made quite a few heads turn at the time. I’d never heard of the band until that year when a friend of mine smacked this effort in the midst of my hologram, insisting on my hearing what “the future of metal sounds like”. Well, the future of metal according to Mordred and the other Knights of the Round Table was a more aggressive take on the bass-driven funkisms from Faith No More’s “The Real Thing” and Death Angel’s “Act III”, those introduced on top of a sharp thrashy template.

I didn’t know at the time that said template was coming from the debut, a very good album which I heard later and liked much more than this “thrash goes funk” experimentation. However, my actual flirtation with Mordred started a bit later, in 1994 to be precise, when I made one of the most compulsive, most arbitrary and most illogical purchases in my metal career: their third instalment “The Next Room”. I still can’t explain what compelled me to buy this cassette, a work of a band I had absolutely no attachments to… I just saw it in the shop and bought it, without even much of a hesitation. The thing is that I didn’t like this album at all, certainly not because it sounded radically different from its predecessor. So it turned out that “the future of metal” was nothing more than the next-in-line tired banal groovy soundscape.

The only plus from this shopping spree of mine was that it made me track down the first two albums, just to trace the drastic metamorphosis’ trajectory mind you, and this is how I discovered the excellent debut. The album reviewed here didn’t sound as off-putting anymore compared to the “third time’s the charm” affair, the situation also further alleviated by the presence of Infectious Grooves’ debut in my collection, another successful funk/metal hybrid. With the paradigm shifted, I could look at this work in a less prejudiced way which immediately revealed ties to the first “metal thrashing mad” coming.

And yes, the very sharp riff-work from the debut stays but the insistent funky bass burps are all over the place early stirring the “adapt or leave” setting on the opening title-track which nails the dominant delivery down to the -d-, cutting mid-tempo riffage with frequent funky frivolities, Scott Holderby’s inordinately melodically-strung clean croon soaring above the less ordinary musical pageant. The thing is that the bass player overdoes (“The Strain”, “High Potency”) it at times, rivalling both Les Claypool (Primus, Blind Illusion) and Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves) with his vociferous inclusions, making sure no one bypasses his funky proclivities. Certainly, the guitar players come right after him to “clean” with portions of hygienic thrashy shreds, and although this chasing around the clock by all means has its pros, it becomes fairly familiar well before the end. Consequently, the listener’s attention will be more fully captured by those numbers that don’t blindly follow this formula like the heavy dramatic “Falling Away”, the restless thrashing leftover from the debut “Progress”, and the superb melodic technicaller “Window”, the highlight here and probably the band’s finest creation.

All good overall, no irredeemable pitfalls if we exclude the several pure funky walkabouts (“Esse Quam Videri”, “Larger Than Life”) those analogues to the playful Rick James cover of “Super Freak” from the debut, which may have found their support from the Faith No More and Infectious Grooves fanbase, above all. I understand why the guys had voted to insert them since without their presence this album would have been just retro thrash with funky disturbances, and this wasn’t exactly the musicians’ agenda. The departure from thrash was already set upon, and without audible displays of it the band would have remained within the thrash roster where their compatriots Heathen, Evildead and Dark Angel continued residing. However, they were looking askance, towards the diversification branch which had already sheltered Flotsam & Jetsam, Death Angel, adding the same year the fairest of them all (Metallica) alongside the Aussies Mortal Sin, and later got enlarged with Overkill, Exodus, Testament, Anthrax, Forbidden, Sacred Reich… the list can be elongated indefinitely.

If we measure the two main nuances thrash will clearly dominate, and in this train of thought this opus is way superior to preposterous “lost the thrash in a quagmire of funks and what-not” works like Re-Animator’s “That Was Then... This Is Now” and Ignorance’s “Positively Shocking”. I’m not sure if the funky therapy was taken more to heart by the classic metal audience than the groovy one, but the fact that neither of these outfits gave themselves another chance in this direction was probably an indication that the noise and the aggro elbowed their way more easily into the 90’s music scene. Even Mordred gave it a go with this next room… sorry, instalment; they couldn’t resist it…

they should have, though, cause they would have been a unique entity all through the 90’s with Infectious Grooves abandoning metal completely, and Faith No More moving miles away from the funk; it’s hard to believe that this “Next Room” was created by exactly the same musicians who were behind the first two albums… but enough with it, let’s go back to this dynamic funky delight here and jump around trying to follow its volatile bass-guided bounces. Cause funk don’t come easy nowadays… not in this life anyway.

In 1989, Californian thrash act Mordred released their debut "Fool's Game" which was almost a pure thrash metal album with small touches of funk here and there. It wasn't until they released their second album "In This Life" that they showed what they're really about. "In This Life" is a groundbreaking album that combinates funk rock and thrash metal which at the time was two popular genres in rock music. Anthrax did their thing with Public Enemy in 1991 when they released the rap metal classic "Bring The Noise" and Mordred's music reminds pretty much of that thing. It's like "Bring The Noise" taken to the next level where it meets Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"In This Life" are built on eleven tracks which all are great in their own ways and I like 'em all. "No fillers, only killers" as spoken about a good album. The title track focuses heavily on rap metal since the vocals are rapping all the way through along with some excellent riffing. "Larger Than Life" is one less funk-oriented song which is pretty heavy-oriented instead but features some really cool stratch effects that leads my mind to Faith No More's live versions of "We Care A Lot" that they did between 1989-1992. "Falling Away" is probably the best reason to listen to this album. It was the biggest hit from the album and also the song that made me love Mordred. Another three tracks worth mentioning are "Progress" which probably is the thrashiest song on this album and the other two are "Downtown" and "Esse Quim Videri". The last two are very funky and the latter is even a touch of hip hop. The remaing tracks are all nice funky thrash killers.

The production is good. Actually, it's about 90-92 % as I want it. They only thing I can complain about is the lack of bouncing bass. If you listen to Faith No More's "Falling To Pieces" or Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Higher Ground" you'll hear how the bass makes the ground bounce. The bass here sounds very similar but it's to thin compared to them if theirs are "fat". The most important thing of all though, that is the balance between every instrument and they are balanced.

The cast is awesome. We got some really experienced musicians here. Not the best ones in history but they're good and most of all, they know what they're doing. Singer Scott Holderby sounds a lot like how Mike Patton sounded on Faith No More's "The Real Thing" album and he's probably very influenced by the almighty Mike Patton. Actually, the most of the music are very similar to the music FNM did on "The Real Thing" but it's main ground are thrash metal beneath the FNM influence. The guitarists are doing a great job with the solos. If you're a solo lover you'll find some nice ear candy here.

So finally to my last comments on "In This Life"...

The album's tracks are all very good but my personal recommendments would be "Falling Away", "Larger Than Life", "Window", "Progress" and "Killing Time".

One thing that's weird is the fact why they didn't put "Lion's Den" from the "Falling Away" EP on the album. That's a really great song and probably my second favorite Mordred song overall.

My final rating is 90/100. It lacks a bouncing bass which is sad because the bass sounds really good. The other thing is the missing of "Lion's Den". Nothing else as I can think of right now so feel free to give "In This Life" a fair change.