review: Mortician

Mortician

Titans

Pure Underground Records

April 17th 2020

Frustration and high energy are the main emotional ingredients of this hot dish of boiling anger. Prisoners rioting and the thieves of the music industry are just a few of the barb wires on this album. In the 1980s this Austrian band (1983), says Metal Archives, did a 1987 demo and an EP that same year, and another demo in 1989. They did not have the big corporations supporting them; therefore, they did what bands have always done, keep sweating it out by themselves for the love of rock and roll. They disappeared. Did anyone notice? Perhaps not many people did. Done. Finished. Gone. “Hasta la vista, baby.” As a business venture, they failed, but as a band they managed to leave behind a little bit of legacy that some older fans in Austria probably remember. “I’ll be back.”

Decades later the 1980s bassist and guitarist reconfigured the matrix with new personnel to issue the 2011 debut album, and in 2014 they did another one. Now in 2020 they have their third album. Let’s open up this can of worms. The band rides between traditional, dive bar whiskey heavy metal and street gang thrash, for a nasty little animal that scratches and bites. The vocals are rough in the AC/DC-Accept-U.D.O.-Overkill street rock style; powered by gremlin fury and whiskey. “Mortician is here to pump you up!”

Expect no ballads and no sweet keyboards, only old school riff heavy metal for parties, fights, working out, and headbanging. For some reason, these old dudes sound remarkably uptempo and a bit angry, frankly. This is old-school bar heavy metal. Weren’t old bands supposed to mellow out with age? Maybe retirement life is not all is cracked up to be. Just how many martinis and mimosas can you have at 9 in the morning before you get tired all that relaxing?! After a while you want to go ride your motorcycle and crash into a couple of 18-wheelers and see how that feels, am I right?! Heck yeah, Bubba, sometimes you have to go out there and pick a few fights at the bar and see how many strangers want to join in and beat you up real good. Now, that’s living. “Get to the choppa!”

MORTICIAN - Spiral Of Death - official lyric Video (PURE UNDERGROUND RECORDS)

facebook.com/MORTICIAN.Austria