FMA Reviews: Mortör: Shoot 'Em Up

Originally reviewed here.

Canada's metal scene is another one that is somewhat underrated, but they have churned out some amazing groups across all genres. Crytopsy, Kataklysm, Voivod, Razor, Sacrifice, and Slaughter are just a few of the death and thrash metal bands that have called Canada home. Mortör is another band to have come up out of the Great White North.

Mortör has only been active for a few years at this point, but this is already the second full-length from the Quebec natives. All of the songs are fairly short, with only a couple breaking the four minute mark. This makes for a tight, punch-filled album that is unapologetic in its take-no-prisoners approach.

Based on the song titles and album art, it would appear that subtlety is not exactly Mortör's strong point. This is an album about war and death, make no mistake about it. The music does well to match the imagery. Mortör plays groove-laden death/thrash. Points of reference include Panzerchrist and Dekapitator. Mortör uses a lot of bottom-end in their riffs, giving a deep, rumbling feeling, not unlike the sound of tanks on the move. That added to the precise rhythms of the riffs give off a mechanical vibe. Mortör is a war machine.

The only real complaint I can even come up with is that the songs tend to run together after awhile and there is no real standout here. There is no one moment that I think back to as a great moment after the album is over. Although the dueling guitar melodies in "Locked and Loaded" come close.

Yet another impressive Canadian band. This band has a bright future.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 30: Death

I am reposting this since Blogger went down. I did not have this saved anywhere so I am doing it from scratch.

Death is truly a revolutionary band. Largely cited as a pioneering band in the death metal scene, Death has remained hugely influential. Hell the entire genre was basically named after the band. Their debut album is still one of the best early examples in the death metal genre and has inspired tons of copycats. However, not content with simply founding an entire genre, Chuck Schuldiner pushed the boundaries of death metal with each new genre becoming more and more progressive until his untimely death. Despite this, Death has remained one of the greatest bands in the death metal genre.

FAVORITE ALBUM: SYMBOLIC

Year in Metal: 1998

BEHEMOTH: PANDEMONIC INCANTATIONS
This album found Behemoth at a crossroads. For years, Behemoth was an underground black metal band out of Poland. However, this album found Behemoth adding more and more death metal influences to their sound. The same death metal influences that would later come to define their sound. Behemoth was still mostly a black metal band, but their sound was undergoing changes. This is a very powerful and aggressive album, and is one of the better albums by the band.

BLIND GUARDIAN: NIGHTFALL IN MIDDLE EARTH
This album is a concept album covering J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Silmarillion". I am not a Tolkien expert by any means so I have no idea of the accuracy of the story, but Blind Guardian does a masterful job of spinning an epic tale. There are short spoken interludes between several of the songs which are meant to further the story along. Such interludes are helpful. Otherwise, this is typical epic power metal by a band that has forged an amazing career at it.

BOLT THROWER: MERCENARY
A comeback album of sorts by Bolt Thrower. This is the first album after Karl Willetts returned. In the meantime, Bolt Thrower had done a few tours with other vocalists, such as Martin Van Drunen. However, the band never released an album with another singer. This is fairly typical Bolt Thrower output, fantastic old school death metal. This album does include one of the band's best songs, the anthemic " No Guts, No Glory".

DEATH: THE SOUND OF PERSEVERANCE
Of course this album was going to make it on here. This is one of my favorite albums of all time. Death's swansong is an amazing slab of progressive death metal. Chuck Schuldiner did a masterful job of songwriting on this release. The album completely transcends the death metal genre to become a certifiable work of art. Schuldiner's riffs, song structures, and lyrics are completely without par. Unfortunately, this was the band's final album.

ICED EARTH: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
Iced Earth, the amazing power/thrash metal band from the United States, had been around for nearly fifteen years by this point, but this is their first truly great album, in my opinion. All of the elements seemed to come together on this release. Jon Schaefer's riffs have always been the focal point in the band, but Matt Barlow's vocals really shine through on this album. The songwriting is also very strong on this album, and it featured the prelude to the Something Wicked concept in the final three songs.

Honorable Mentions: Cradle of Filth: Cruelty and the Beast; Fear Factory: Obsolete; Hammerfall: Legacy of Kings; Metallica: Garage Inc.; Opeth: My Arms, Your Hearse; Slayer: Diabolus in Musicana

Bands that Formed in 1998: Chimaira, Tyr

Year in Metal: 1995

As I mentioned earlier, for the next few weeks, posts will be less frequent. Please bear with me. I have a major trial coming up soon that I am spending the majority of my time preparing for.

AT THE GATES: SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL
Who's honestly surprised to see this one here? This was a massively imfluential album for the melodeath genre and is the album most people think of when they think of that style. Oddly At the Gates streamlined their sound quite a bit. Their earlier material sounds little like this one. The album is hard-hitting, aggressive, and fast. For good reason, it is an absolute classic. Unfortunately, At the Gates broke up afterwards.

BLIND GUARDIAN: IMAGINATIONS FROM THE OTHER SIDE
This is probably my favorite Blind Guardian album. It is still reasonably aggressive, for Blind Guardian anyway, with an excellent sense of melody. The German power metal has never sounded as good as they do on this release. It is a darker sound than some of their earlier albums, which adds to the mystique of this release. Blind Guardian would become overly complicated on later releases, this was the last album where they were wholly concentrated on putting out quality songs.

DARK TRANQUILLITY: THE GALLERY
I am a huge Dark Tranquillity fan, and this is their finest album. This was before the band became too reliant on electronic elements and their last that was pure Swedish melodic death metal, plain and simple. Along with the above At the Gates album, this is one of the hallmarks of the Gothenburg style of melodic death, with dual leads and gruff vocals driving the music. The reissue is a must as it has the band covering tracks from Metallica, Iron Maiden, Kreator, Mercyful Fate, and Sacred Reich.

DEATH: SYMBOLIC
This is probably my favorite album by Death, as it combines the band's earlier death metal sound with the more progressive sound exhibited by the band's final album. Chuck Schuldiner's vocals are different, higher and more melodic, than they were on the band's earlier material. The razor-sharp riffs remain and Schuldiner's keen sense of songwriting is definitely still present. Some of these songs, such as "Crystal Mountain" are absolute classics.

PARADISE LOST: DRACONIAN TIMES
I had a hard time between this album and My Dying Bride's 1995 release, but I ultimately chose Paradise Lost because it was an early favorite album. This was one of my formative albums. Paradise Lost's sound was in a state of flux at this point, they were not really playing doom metal or gothic metal, but more of a traditional metal with gothic and doom influences. I have loved this album ever since I first heard it. The dynamics are incredible and the riffs are amazing. The vocals are incredibly powerful as well. This is just a great album, and an overlooked classic.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Alice in Chains: Alice in Chains, Cathedral: The Carnival Bizarre, Faith No More: King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime, Fear Factory: Demanufacture, Immortal: Battles in the North, King Diamond: The Spider's Lullabye, Moonspell: Wolfheart, My Dying Bride: The Angel and the Dark River, Opeth: Orchid, Trouble: Plastic Green Head, White Zombie: Astro Creep: 2000.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 1995: Borknagar, Ensiferum, Shadows Fall, Xasthur.

Year in Metal: 1987

Let's keep this going, shall we?

ANTHRAX: AMONG THE LIVING
I have never been a big Anthrax fan. In fact, of the Big 4 of American thrash, Anthrax is my least favorite. However, this is undeniably a great album from the band. Anthrax has always been lighter-hearted than their more serious brethren and this album definitely demonstrates this. This is a fun, catchy album that is essential for any thrash metal fans. That's not to say that it is not a heavy album, Anthrax shows off some great riffs and has always had a gift for speed. If you only get one Anthrax album, this is the one I would recommend.

BATHORY: UNDER THE SIGN OF THE BLACK MARK
Here we have what is quite possibly the first fully-formed black metal album. Bathory had been pushing the boundaries for a little while, but this is one album that can be heard today and easily identified as black metal. Bathory took thrash metal riffs and made something unholy out of them. Many black metal bands that emerged from Norway in the late 1980's/early 1990's modeled their sound after this album. Kind of odd, considering Bathory was Swedish and there was such a backlash among Norwegian artists against Swedish artists.

DEATH: SCREAM BLOODY GORE
From the first black metal album to one of the first death metal albums. This is the debut album from Death. Even at this early stage in the band's career, it was clear that Chuck Schuldiner was calling all the shots as he played guitar, bass, and provided the vocals. This album took thrash and played it with more distortion and it clearly defined what death metal was to sound like. Bands in previous years had come close, but this album was the breakthrough. This is the band that truly kickstarted the genre.

HOLY MOSES: FINISHED WITH THE DOGS
Holy Moses is a massively underrated thrash metal band. Coming from Germany around the same time as Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction, somehow Holy Moses got lost in the shuffle. It is possible that they were not taken seriously due to their vocalist, Sabina Classen. It's not a gimmick, Classen is a terrific frontwoman and one of the very first women in extreme metal. Her snarling vocals really matched with the razor-sharp riffs and blazing solos. Holy Moses is one of the best bands from the German thrash scene but have unfairly not been given the attention they deserve.

KING DIAMOND: ABIGAIL
Wow, I keep managing to get King Diamond/Mercyful Fate in here. That's how massively important that the man, King Diamond, was to the metal scene in the 1980's. This is the solo band's second album and the measuring stick against which all other albums from the band would be compared. This is King's greatest horror story, a story about the evil spirit of a child planning to be reborn again. The music is terrific once again, marked by more melody than Mercyful Fate previously had. King's vocals are once again the focus and they remain incredible.

Honorable Mentions: Death Angel: The Ultra Violence, Dio: Dream Evil, Exodus: Pleasures of the Flesh, Helloween: Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, Kreator: Terrible Certainty, Savatage: Hall of the Mountain King, Suicidal Tendencies: Join the Army, Testament: The Legacy, Voivod: Killing Technology.

Bands that formed in 1987: Alice in Chains, Asphyx, Autopsy, Burzum, Cynic, Danzig. Darkthrone, Deicide, Entombed, Meshuggah, Nitro, Primordial, Therion.

Random Thoughts: Death: The Sound of Perseverence

I wanted to do a brief post about this amazing album. I have always felt that this was Death's most ambitious and personal album. I also believe that it is Death's best album. Death has always been Chuck Schuldiner and whoever else he happened to have in the studio at the time. This album was clearly an intensely personal experience for Schuldiner. But I will deal with that in a minute.

Death's music on this album was incredibly progressive. Showing a technicality and melodic sensibility that was largely lacking in the initial albums by the band. That's not to say that they were bad albums, but this album has to be considered in a completely different light than their material that pioneered the death metal genre. The melodies are the key on this album, rather than the crushing monolithic riffs of their prior material. The guitar leads and solos sound amazing and Schuldiner's voice is higher-pitched and desperately emotional this time around.

What makes this truly an extraordinary album is the emotional impact. Chuck Schuldiner was dying when this was written and recorded. The album is incredibly spiritual and reflects the mortality of its writer. Songs like "Story to Tell" and "Spirit Crusher", as well as many of the other tracks deal with the personal journey of slowly succumbing to brain cancer. This album is amazing because even though Schuldiner was dying, he still managed to portray some uplifting emotions in it.

To close, I want to reprint the lyrics to "A Moment of Clarity":

I would describe it as an invisible darkness
Casting a shadow, a blinding black
Guarded by hope, my soul is kept from
The bloody claws
Look to beyond, what vision lets me see
Time after time, unneeded misery
Holding tight to my dreams
I own no price for you
I grip them tight and hope for sight
Open my eyes wide to see a moment of clarity
Confusion gone, it's in your hands
Your turn to ask why
Life is like a mystery
With many clues, but with few answers
To tell us what it is that we can do to look
For messages that keep us from the truth

Chuck Schuldiner died of brain cancer in 2001, just three years after this album was released.

8 Year Anniversary of the Death of Chuck Schuldiner

Today is the 8th anniversary of the death of Chuck Schuldiner. This one is a bit more important to me as I am a much bigger fan of Death than Pantera. Chuck was Death. Plain and simple. The band had several other members but only Chuck stayed. Chuck died of brain cancer. The band's lyrical themes clearly changed as Chuck fought for his life. The last two albums are almost heartbreaking with songs like "Spirit Crusher" and "A Moment of Clarity". R.I.P. Chuck, you were clearly a death metal pioneer.

Strange Album Covers Pt. 4: Horror

It's October everyone, which means Halloween, which means horror movies. With that in mind, every day for several days, I will post some of my favorite horror-influenced album covers. Since I can only post five at a time, I will have to stretch this out over several days. So, shall we begin?

TESTAMENT: SOULS OF BLACK

Here we have a group of wraiths in black robes with the lead wraith holding a heart. This is certainly Testament's darkest album cover, but nowhere near their heaviest album. Testament has always had occult themes to go along with a thrash style clearly influenced by Metallica and Megadeth.

IRON MAIDEN: FEAR OF THE DARK

This is not one of Iron Maiden's best albums, but it is nevertheless a good one, featuring some great songs. The band was clearly slowing things down at this point. This though is easily Maiden's scariest looking album cover featuring Eddie somehow fused to a dark tree.

DEATH: SCREAM BLOODY GORE

This is one of many zombie covers readers will see in this series of horror influenced album covers. This is Death's debut full length album. The band was raw and primal at this point, they would quickly refine their sound and continue to become more progressive over the course of their too-short career.

SUFFOCATION: HUMAN WASTE

I don't know what the fuck this is supposed to be. The best I can come up with is something similar to the movie Feast although this album came more than a decade before that movie. This is Suffocation's EP released just prior to their debut full length. Suffocation has always managed to have sinister looking beasts on their album covers. This is definitely the bloodiest.

SEPULTURA: MORBID VISIONS

Somewhat lo-fi, but very effective. This cover features evil spirits attacking some recently crucified individuals. The one in the middle is most likely Jesus Christ. Pretty eerie looking. This is Sepultura's debut full length which was a major influence on the upcoming death and black metal scenes.