MORTILLERY
I am a big fan of the thrash genre. Quite often you will hear the sounds of Destruction, Overkill, Testament, Exodus, Kreator etc emanating fairly loudly from my music room and I have also recently been impressed with some of the newer bands emerging such as 4ARM, Beholder & Reign of Fury to name but three; therefore, when I saw that I had Mortillery’s second album ‘Origin of Extinction’ to review my interest was piqued. Not having much in the way of press info to go on I did some research and checked out what other people were saying, and to most ears this seems to have hit the mark. Unfortunately, I don’t feel the same way.
‘Origin Of Extinction kicks off with ‘Battle March’, a plodding two minute instrumental track that is about as stimulating as dry toast; it does nothing for me whatsoever. To then start first track proper, ‘No Way Out’, like a ballad is not a good idea. Add to that the fact that this and the following track, ‘Cease To Exist’, sound more like something off an obscure NWOBHM album, then it really isn’t a promising start, for a thrash band at least. ‘Cease To Exist’ also introduces my other main issues with this band. If you don’t already know, Mortillery (from Edmonton, Canada) are female fronted. Now I have nothing against harsh female vocals (Holy Moses are a big love), but contrary to comments by other people, Cara McCutchen’s voice grates on me. She does have a powerful set of pipes (when she stays in the lower register), but reaches squeal mode far too often throughout the course of the album with parts of several tracks sounding dangerously out of tune. ‘The Hunter’s Lair’ I find almost unlistenable because of the vocals. Some of the guitar solos also seem to suffer with a similar problem. Alex Scott appears to be trying out the discordant Slayer approach to soloing, but when he does it just sound wrong.
Am I being too harsh on this? Perhaps, but it’s just nowhere near as good as I was hoping. There are some good tracks; ‘Creature Possessor’ and ‘Seen In Death’ are certainly worthy of comment and the album is very well produced, giving a modern sheen to the ‘classic thrash’ sound, but those things cannot save what is essentially a tired retread of many that have gone before. If you are a fan of the above mentioned bands plus Helstar, Vio-lence and Municipal Waste then this might well satisfy your needs but I’m afraid it has left me cold and disappointed.
‘Origin Of Extinction kicks off with ‘Battle March’, a plodding two minute instrumental track that is about as stimulating as dry toast; it does nothing for me whatsoever. To then start first track proper, ‘No Way Out’, like a ballad is not a good idea. Add to that the fact that this and the following track, ‘Cease To Exist’, sound more like something off an obscure NWOBHM album, then it really isn’t a promising start, for a thrash band at least. ‘Cease To Exist’ also introduces my other main issues with this band. If you don’t already know, Mortillery (from Edmonton, Canada) are female fronted. Now I have nothing against harsh female vocals (Holy Moses are a big love), but contrary to comments by other people, Cara McCutchen’s voice grates on me. She does have a powerful set of pipes (when she stays in the lower register), but reaches squeal mode far too often throughout the course of the album with parts of several tracks sounding dangerously out of tune. ‘The Hunter’s Lair’ I find almost unlistenable because of the vocals. Some of the guitar solos also seem to suffer with a similar problem. Alex Scott appears to be trying out the discordant Slayer approach to soloing, but when he does it just sound wrong.
Am I being too harsh on this? Perhaps, but it’s just nowhere near as good as I was hoping. There are some good tracks; ‘Creature Possessor’ and ‘Seen In Death’ are certainly worthy of comment and the album is very well produced, giving a modern sheen to the ‘classic thrash’ sound, but those things cannot save what is essentially a tired retread of many that have gone before. If you are a fan of the above mentioned bands plus Helstar, Vio-lence and Municipal Waste then this might well satisfy your needs but I’m afraid it has left me cold and disappointed.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Napalm Records
Album
ORIGIN OF EXTINCTION
Review by Rick Tilley
RUNNING TIME:
42:09
RELEASE DATE:
22nd Feb 2013
TRACK LISTING
1) Battle March
2) No Way Out
3) Cease to Exist
4) Creature Possessor
5) Seen in Death
6) Feed the Fire
7) The Hunter's Lair
8) F.O.A.D.
9) Maniac
10) Sunday Morning Slasher
2) No Way Out
3) Cease to Exist
4) Creature Possessor
5) Seen in Death
6) Feed the Fire
7) The Hunter's Lair
8) F.O.A.D.
9) Maniac
10) Sunday Morning Slasher
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Canada
"...essentially a tired retread of many that have gone before."
