
Death metal fans will love the low end crunch of Mortification. Bassist Steve Rowe handles lead vocals for this three-piece band, and they help the band hone in on its grindcore audience, while at the same time turn off commercial/melodic metalheads due to its incoherencey. But, such is the genre. Fans of Roger Martinez will find it up to snuff, but what really separates this band from the boys is the tight musicianship and a proficiency at riffing. Drummer Jayson Sherlock shows an affinity for his toms, as he lays a roll across them a lot in the album opener, "Until The End", plus he got a nice snare drum sound all through the mix. "Brutal Warfare" is a brutal song, with a good, solid, heavy hook nestled in the guitar lines. Rowe plays steps out a bit with his own bass riffing in this song at appropriate moments. If you like your thrash sometimes slow and heavy, but still like short bursts of speed, then you'll love "Bathed In Blood". Lyrically, it is about as straight-forward as Christian metal gets: "Blood poured out for you/blood poured out for me...You can now enter into God's kingdom/Do it before you die..." One of the highlights is the album's closer, "The Majestic Infiltration Of Order", which is a longer phrase than any of the song, which simply repeats "God rulz!" With this heavy thrashin' release, Mortification puts all the negative stigma from Lightforce's weak material to rest. Roger Martinez did a swell job producing these guys. "Sus it out," as they say down unda.