Mortification: The Intense Years - 30th Anniversary Box Set | The Box Of Dreams
(2020 – Soundmass)
It’s not easy to review stuff that straddles the line between personal fanaticism, vivid memories of good times, and the best of one of the greatest bands in White Metal. At this point, there is no doubt that Mortification is a Metal legend and has left a mark that is difficult to erase. This is the aim of this box set edition, which takes us on a journey through Mortification’s first five studio albums (plus the ineffable “Live Planetarium”), rediscovering the important legacy of Steve Rowe and his boys, in perhaps the most interesting part of their long history.
I really enjoy Mortification, especially their early albums. This box set is another good excuse to rediscover this material and bang your head again because Mortification never lets up. It’s a skull and ear crusher that seems to have no limits. It’s true that over time they softened their sound a bit, and the band even ended up sounding more like a mixture of Maiden-style riffs with sounds taken from thrash metal, but it’s undeniable that intensity was always one of Mortification’s hallmarks.
That said, it should be noted that this box set also contains a bonus disc. A CD released exclusively for this box set and never before seen. It is the album “Live 1996,” recorded on tour that year when Mortification was promoting “EnVision Evangelene,” released in 1996.
The content of this box set, as its title suggests, focuses on the albums released by Intense Records at the time, leaving out, for example, the 1990 album “Break The Curse,” which was released by Nuclear Blast in 1994, and all subsequent albums. Of course, we are talking about perhaps Mortification’s best era, even going as far as “Primitive Rhythm Machine,” in which Steve Rowe went so far as to record an album with musicians who ultimately did not become permanent members of Mortification, as the original lineup had gradually disbanded.
For this reason, we will not delve too deeply into material already known to Mortification fans, but we will highlight that each of these albums comes with bonus material. More specifically, in the case of “Mortification,” five songs recorded live between 1991 and 1992 are included, with a sound that can only be justified as historical material since they are “bootleg” recordings and not console recordings. Even so, the result is at least listenable, and its value has more to do with its historical significance than with its sound quality. Still, it’s nice to be able to hear how songs sounded that, at least for me, I had never heard live before.
Similarly, Scrolls Of The Megilloth includes three live tracks recorded in 1992 with sound quality similar (poor) to the extras on the first album, with the exception that on rare occasions we will have the opportunity to hear songs such as “Terminate Damnation,” “Eternal Lamentation,” or “Necromanicide” in live versions. In contrast to all this, the extras on “Post Momentary Affliction” include the first previously unreleased track. “Butchered Mutilation” was only released on a compilation for the Nuclear Blast label, and was eventually released alongside that label’s edition of “Break The Curse.” In addition, we find “Distarnish Priest,” taken from the album “Live 1996,” and two rare versions of “Grind Planetarium” and the well-known ‘Medley’ (“Lymphosarcoma,” “The Destroyer Behold,” “Distarnish Priest,” and “Love Song”), rescued from a concert in 2002, all with sound (now) coming from the sound console, which considerably improves the result.
In “Live Planetarium,” in addition to having a cover that is totally different from the original, the track list again lacks Bloodgood’s cover, “Black Snake” (it was also excluded in subsequent reissues), which is found on the original first edition. A matter of rights? Who knows. Still, it’s nice to be able to hear “Time Crusaders” in its studio version, the same version that was released on the legendary Rowe Productions compilation CD, “Australian Metal Compilation.” That’s the only “extra” the album has to offer.
And what about “Bloodworld”? It was a controversial album at the time, it must be said, but over time, at least for me, I grew to like it a little more. There is a completely unreleased track, which in my case, I am hearing for the first time. “Entering The Eternal Dawn” is a killer track that I don’t understand how it was left out. In addition to this, a live version of “Bloodworld” was also included as a bonus track, which is much more aggressive than the version we hear on “Live Without Fear,” it must be said, as well as a version of “Your Life” rescued from a 2001 concert, and again the “Medley,” but recorded sometime in 2007.
Finally, we have “Primitive Rhythm Machine,” the album released in 1995 almost single-handedly by Steve Rowe with the help of Bill Rice, Jason Campbell, Dave Kellogg, Vett Roberts, and George Ochoa, who also served as producer. As extras, we have a live version of “Mephiboshet,” recorded in 2002, plus the impeccable rendition of the title track from this album, taken from the 1996 EP “Live Without Fear” (a gem that is hard to find these days) and the short but intense version of “Killing Evil,” recorded sometime in 1996.
The jewel in the crown of this collection is the bonus disc entitled “Live 1996,” which, as its name suggests, is a recording of a previously unreleased Mortification concert from 1996. Recorded on June 25 of that year at the Murray Hill Theater in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, this show features the band’s lineup at the time, with Steve Rowe (as always on bass and vocals), Lincoln Bowen on guitar, and Keith Bannister on drums. Here we find Mortification reviewing the most classic of their discography, without too many surprises in the setlist, although we highlight “Your Life,” “Scrolls Of The Megilloth,” and “Peace In The Galaxy,” among others. The sound is worthy of a console bootleg, without any retouching whatsoever, maintaining the “underground” spirit that always characterized Mortification. The differences with the EPs “Live Without Fear” and “Noah Sat Down” are more than evident. In this way, you can notice various mistakes, feedback, and so on, all of which give this material much more naturalness, although not perfection. Perhaps mastering would have substantially improved the result. It should be noted that this album is only available in this box set, making it a lure for collectors.
Was any work done to remaster each of the albums contained in the box set? The reality is that this is not indicated anywhere, but there is no noticeable improvement in the sound, and no difference can be heard compared to each of the original editions.
Let’s move on to the artwork, which is very important in an edition like this. Don’t expect anything grand, quite the contrary. Simplicity and modesty are what stand out most. It is just a black box with a label on the top with the Mortification logo and the title of this edition. Inside, there is no book or anything like it, just the different albums that make up the set, which we have already briefly described, and the extra material that each disc contains. Each album is wrapped in its own cardboard box, digipack style, which in turn simulates a vinyl record sleeve, containing the corresponding CD and its inner sleeve, along with lyrics, photos, etc.
It is in the inner sleeve of each album that we can find not only the lyrics and photos of Mortification, but also different illustrations, details of the release of each album, etc. The presentation of each album is truly excellent. Perhaps a little limited, but at least there is plenty of information to understand the story of Steve Rowe and Mortification. Incidentally, each album includes not only the original covers, but also the alternatives (which had to be modified in some cases for religious reasons or simply due to the region of release), which adds an extra excuse to enjoy the material. The internal design is substantially flawless, with some unpublished photos and vintage flyers.
This box set was released in a limited edition (only 200 copies) and only in CD format. Despite its simplicity, which is extreme at times, we believe it is a good opportunity to learn about the history of Mortification between 1991 and 1996, through their discography, during their most fruitful period. It’s a shame that it wasn’t also released on vinyl, and we believe that more material could have been added to the “extras,” such as the devastating 4-track demo that was included in the 2002 reissue of “Scrolls Of The Megilloth,” to give one example. Even so, this box set is worth its weight in gold, and the album “Live 1996” alone justifies its purchase, if only for its intrinsic value to fans of the band.
To try to get one of the limited copies, check https://www.soundmass.com and see if it is still available. Otherwise, you may have to wait for a new edition in the future.
