Year : 1989 (Dissonance Productions Limited Edition Digipak 2022)
Style : Thrash Metal , Speed Metal
Country : Australia
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 107 mb
Bio:
Mortal Sin were one of the first Australian thrash metal bands to achieve widespread recognition outside of the land down under. Inspired by the genre's earliest champions (especially Metallica and Anthrax), vocalist Mat Maurer, guitarists Paul Carwana and Steve Krstin, bassist Andy Eftichiou, and drummer Wayne Campbell caused quite a stir with their excellent 1987 debut, Mayhemic Destruction. Considered a minor thrash classic in its time, the album even had mighty Kerrang! Magazine touting them as the 'next big thing,' but their 1989 follow-up, Face of Despair (released by major label Polygram and introducing new guitar player, Mick Burke, supplanting Krstin), fell somewhat short of expectations; its superior production values were incapable of masking the mostly lackluster songwriting within. In retrospect, it's clear that creative stagnation had already set in, and despite opening for Metallica's Aussie tour later that year, and touring with Testament and Faith No More across Europe in 1990, the band's warring factions wound up splintering, following a disastrous benefit gig back in Sydney (fans destroyed the venue -- to the benefit of no one). With its musicians now scattered to the four winds, the book appeared to have closed on Mortal Sin's brief career, but bassist Eftichiou covertly set about assembling a new lineup that featured vocalist Steve Sly, guitarists Tom Dostoupil and Dave DeFrancesco, and drummer Nash Hall. It was only a matter of weeks before his outraged former bandmates got wind of his plans and initiated legal proceedings to strip him of the right to use their collectively-owned name, but not in time to stop the release of a third, obviously very dubious Mortal Sin album in 1991's Rebellious Youth. A six-year silence ensued for hatchet-burying purposes, but original members Maurer, Eftichiou, and Campbell did eventually decide to reconvene Mortal Sin with the aid of guitarists Anthony Hoffman and Troy Scerri, and recorded an EP entitled Revolution of the Mind. Since its release in 1997, Mortal Sin have continued to reunite for the occasional concert, but no actual new recordings have surfaced.
Album:
Updated reissue of Mortal Sin’s breakthrough second album ‘Face Of Despair, originally released in 1989, with extensive liner notes and contributions from the band. Newly remastered, the release features liner notes from respected metal writer Malcolm Dome who conducted new interviews with the band, and also from former touring drummer Steve Hughes, now a hugely successful stand-up comedian.Emerging from the Australian metal underground in the latter part of the ‘80s after forming in 1985, Mortal Sin quickly found global fame when their self- released debut LP ‘Mayhemic Destruction’ was picked up by major label Vertigo and re-issued globally in 1987.Follow up ‘Face of Despair’ was produced by Randy Burns (Megadeth, Possessed, Death, Nuclear Assault) and received global acclaim. The band toured Australia with Metallica on their ‘…And Justice For All’ tour, and also toured Europe with Testament, and then supported Faith No More on their ‘The Real Thing’ tour. The single ‘I Am Immortal’ and live video release ‘Face Of Mayhem’ helped the band gain wider acceptance.When vocalist Mat Maurer quit the band in 1990, Mortal Sin carried on and recorded a third album, ‘Every Dog Has It’s Day’, released in 1991.Mortal Sin remained sporadically active up until 2012. This re-issue has the full co-operation of the band.Mortal Sin was apparently a hyped act back in the day, though much of this was likely due to their stylistic similarity to early Metallica combined with a lack of what might be dubbed unnecessary stylistic evolution that had infected Hetfield and company. Much of their notoriety was tied to the raw and vital debut they kicked out in 1986 (arguably the greatest year for 80s thrash metal) that drew heavily from the "Kill Em' All" formula while tuning out much of the extras that Metallica began throwing in soon after. By way of contrast, "Face Of Despair" takes a more polished approach in terms of production, and largely comes off as a faster version of "Ride The Lightning" minus the balladry. While it might have been a bit presumptuous to call these guys the next Metallica, they definitely carried the label a bit better than some of their more technically oriented competition in the San Francisco Bay Area, some of whom were equally as blunt about where they got their ideas from.To be sure, this is an ambitious album that's busting at the hips with an abundance of killer riff work and nasty thrashing goodness, but it's a bit more measured and calculated in its execution. Even when dealing with high speed neck destruction after the mold of Testament's "The Legacy" as heard in "Innocent Torture" and "Terminal Reward", there's a sense of build up and release that is more in line with a Exodus outlook on things rather than a Slayer or a Dark Angel approach. In fact, the one band that really comes to mind as being the most comparable to what is going on here stylistically is the early offerings out of Xentrix, a band from Britain that also took its cues from the Bay Area approach. Much of this album rests in a comfortable upper mid-tempo crunch, which actually works a bit better than the faster character of "Mayhemic Destruction" with Mat Maurer's slightly higher pitched version of Hetfield's gruff vocals.To further describe the sense of nuance and development that is going on within these songs, while there isn't anything that wouldn't qualify as a ballad per say, there is a fair amount of variety going on here. "Martyr's Of Eternity" arguably gets the closest to ballad territory with a quiet, haunting intro reminiscent of every song off of "The New Order", but then opts to fall into a punishing mid-tempo groove that almost seems like it wants to emulate "The Thing That Should Not Be", but ends up avoiding any pretense of doom metal influence and gradually builds from a slower paced stomp with a lot of detailing to a full speed assault. Similarly, the exciting yet auspiciously mid-tempo starting song "I Am Immortal" smacks the listener with a solid bass intro before shifting into a back and forth play of mid-paced grooving and faster, double bass drum steeped fury. While the tone of the guitar is punchy and brilliant, the instrument that tends to shine the most in overall sound is the drums, which manage to sound thunderous and huge without going into the pretentiously click-like character that Lars was moving into on "...And Justice For All".While in terms of overall quality it's a toss up between this album and its predecessor as Mortal Sin's crowning achievement, this album holds a slight edge for me given the stellar production job and more inventive songwriting. This is the album that Defiance was trying to put out during the early 90s but didn't succeed at for lack of a competent vocalist and a clear sense of how to fully develop a song. The media may prefer Metallica's notoriety and timing as the first band in this style to hit it big, but this tops anything that they did from 1986 onward, and gives a lot of the stronger Bay Area acts that followed a real run for their money. By 1989 thrash metal was a worldwide phenomenon, and Australia definitely did their share of the work both here and on the Hobbs' Angel Of Death debut.
Line Up:
Mat Maurer - Vocals
Mick Burke - Guitars (R.I.P. 2017)
Paul Carwana - Guitars
Andy Eftichiou - Bass - See also: ex-Who's Guilty
Wayne Campbell - Drums
Tracklist:
01. I Am Immortal 04:42
02. Voyage of the Disturbed 05:03
03. The Infantry Corps 03:51
04. For Richer for Poorer 04:45
05. Martyrs of Eternity 05:11
06. Innocent Torture 04:12
07. Suspended Animation 04:56
08. H 03:19
09. Terminal Reward 04:34
10. Robbie Soles 02:32
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