Metalheads Union: REVIEW OF THE ALBUM SHOUT FOR HEAVY METAL BY MORTICIAN (14th november 2014)

Monday, 20 October 2014

REVIEW OF THE ALBUM SHOUT FOR HEAVY METAL BY MORTICIAN (14th november 2014)

Mortician is a genuine heavy metal band from Austria, formed in 1983 and releasing cult heavy metal materials on that time consisting in a demo and EP No War in 1987 with excellent media feedback, and changing line up for another demo in 1989 but without being as successful as their first EP, the band split in 1990. Twenty years after their last concert, the reunion of Mortician was a reality, forming a solid lineup with the two founder members Patrick (bass) and Thomas (guitar), joining forces with Daniel Khan on the vocals and Gergely Nagy on drums.

Soon the new Mortician released their first full length called Mortician via Pure Steel Records, a really high quality album showing a renovated energy from the Austrian quartet. Finally the band went again to the studio to forge their second bomb called Shout for heavy metal, released by Pure Steel Records and coming the next 14th November 2014

The sound of Mortician and their new album, is influenced by the greatest heavy metal bands from the 80s such as Accept and Judas Priest, combining the aggressive edge from those giants with the power metal showed on bands like Grave Digger, showing comparable composition strategy on verses, strong Teutonic guitar performance and catchy and repetitive choruses in general.

Powerful is the word to use to describe the beginning of the album, the tittle track Shout for Heavy metal will make you bang your head straight away, mid strong pulse and catchy chorus in general, with a remarkable high pitched performance on the vocals, continued by Eagle Spy following similar patterns, excellent riff performance and really good progression on the verses, guitar riffs are outstanding and the drums do a good job on the pedals, a demonstration of true power heavy metal style.

Promised land heralds an effective riff in good harmony with the vocals, developing galloping in crescendo progressions and another good job on the vocal performance with clean and sharp techniques as the fast paced track Rock Power kicks in with drippings of Accept and Saxon in a powerful and headbanging feeling.

The Devil you know is another full power-heavy metal track with extremely catchy chorus, the ascending intensity this track create is astonishing, changing vocal techniques on the clean side in one hand to be answered by Udo style on the other hand, being a good highlight of the album among other tracks like Black Eyes, whose powerful riff will be remembered, this time vocals act with short shots under a mid tempo forceful changing rhythms, being one of the best acts the band have created.

Inner Self attacks with thrash metal drippings and high and lows on the vocals, melodies contains some modern details, and the attitude remains wild all over this song, the quality on the composition is better and more sophisticated, applicable also to the next track Hate, where the band show a more complex structures adding acoustic parts that are transformed into speed metal sections, great guitar riffs bringing memories from the Children of the grave track by Black Sabbath.

Wrong way finalise the album bringing some hard rocker attitude to the mixture that Mortician have shown already, the mid pulsed track encapsulates well what the band's style is about, showing a really exceptional guitar work.

Mortician follow the path of true metal once again with this album, The compositions are brilliant, however that could be more diverse, the patterns are followed in similar ways on most of the tracks.

Overall, the result is marvellous, highlighting tracks like Black Eyes, The devil you know or the tittle track. Shout for heavy metal will be an essential not only Grave Digger and Accept fans but also for NWOBHM maniacs hungry for louder than hell true metal records.

8 / 10