Mortification - Scribe of the Pentateuch

When a friend of mine found out I hadn't actually acquired any Mortification releases, he more or less quickly went out and got me the latest copy saying "Review it." He was very interested to hear the opinion of someone who hadn't listened to all the earlier songs and could therefor could come up with an unbiased account for the EP.

Since he bought me the damn thing, how could I not? And I could definitely understand his reasoning after listening to the first three songs. Having heard the songs "Too much Pain" and "God Rulz" before, I had a vague idea of what to expect from an entire release by this band, lots of heavy, fast thrash influenced death metal. And it was that, but there was some definite trad doom injected right into this EP.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a doom album. Not by any shot. But a lot of the songs such as "Scribe of the Pentateuch" and "In Garland Hall" are much slower and atmospheric than true thrash death. About two minutes before the song Scribe of the Pentateuch ends some clean trad vocals come in that could bring you right back to artists such as Reverend Bizarre. In fact, that's exactly what it reminded me of, Reverend Bizarre on auditory steroids. With thick meaty guitar riffs that charge their way through the individual songs. Songs like The Jaws of Life came through with a dirty sludge like riffs suddenly giving way to fast thrashing which then fades back it's earlier sound. This is more than anything a good summary of the composition behind this EP.

The riffs continue to change from fast death thrash and then tone back into something a bit darker, a bit dirtier and a bit more soothing too, and then make their way back to the faster aggressive metal. The songs are more or less similar enough in structure, while still retaining their own unique sound that it's not hard to digest them together in one sitting.

Well, all the songs apart from "Weapons of Mass Salvation."  That song is much more distorted and actually sounds like it has a bit of blackgaze influence to it. Which I never saw coming honestly. It would have to be the most out of place song on the entire album. Using heavy grainy distortion to make chords slide from one to the other with a haunting effect that made me wonder what band it was that inspired it.

After the first six songs we have what looks to be a "Best of the 2000's mini-compilation." This contains the four songs "Priests of the Underground," "Too Much Pain," "Erasing the Goblin," and "Elastisized Outrage." This mini compilation mainly contains thick and heavy death metal with small amounts of trash influenced death metal poking through bringing the release back to a fast and explosive finish.

The artwork is pretty ridiculous. A giant robotic claw is writing on scrolls with a quill while bats fly out of a small explosion in the background. On the back you've got the claw again with a photo of Steve, Lincoln and Andrew. Inside you've got more of the same. Band pics with giant robotic claw and Mortification logo font script. The lyrics section was probably the most creative of the whole art behind the release, as it is a fold out poster for those who would rather chuck the album disk into a CD wallet and then hang the poster on the wall.

Overall it was a good album that I will find myself coming back to now and then when I want some heavy metal that isn't just focused on one single style without letting outside influences into the composition and production of the music. It wasn't a fantastic album, but it was definitely good enough that I'll remember it from here on in.

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