Mortician
Domain Of Death
Relapse
Really, what else can you say about Mortician? Attracting a growing legion of bloodlusty rivetheads with each passing year, the NY duo tirelessly slog it out in the “brutal” death department, crapping out interchangeable record after interchangeable record, with few real “songs” and mostly a bunch of boring riffs and transitions, almost outright hilarious to a (very sharp) point. And “crap” is precisely what Domain Of Death is, a variety of which decidedly forsakes memorability and structure for sheer visceral overload • kinda inebriatedly arty in a vague sort of way, but not really. Notwithstanding the non-programmed drums of its predecessor (1999’s Chainsaw Dismemberment), Mortician’s seventh and latest Relapsed platter predictably finds these sunless souls mining extremely familiar territory, all clicky light-speed drum-machines, seesawing detuned riffs, Will Rahmer’s basso profundo deathbellow, and what not; and hey, there’s even two covers (Pungent Stench’s “Pulsating Protoplasma” and Disastrous Murmur’s “Extra Uterine Pregnancy”). The cover sorta sucks compared to their previous ones • certainly not on par for thee esteemed Wes Benscoter • and what’s up with the conspicuous lack of bass on Robert Beaujard’s guitars? Whatever. Amazingly, bound to Soundscan more than all the arse that’s come before. I’m gonna hang for this.
Relapse, PO Box 2060, Upper Darby, PA 19082; http://www.relapse.com
