• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

January 2025

• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

October 2024

• Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
• DGM: Endless
• Daytona: Garder la Flamme
• Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
• Frost*: Life In The Wires
• Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
• Fans Of The Dark: Video
• Radioactive: Reset
• House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
• Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire

September 2024

• Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
• Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
• Eclipse: Megalomanium II
• SteelCity: Reverence
• Hydra: ReHydrated
• Heartwind: III
• Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
• Find Me: Nightbound
• The Nail: The Nail
• Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
• Stryper: When We Were Kings
• Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
• Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
• Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly

[ More Music Reviews ]

Mortician: Shout For Heavy Metal

(Traditional) Heavy Metal

4.0/5.0

Website Facebook
Pure Steel Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 06.11.2014

The career of Austria's Mortician began better than 25 years ago, but only in recent years has the band found some modicum of success. Reforming and releasing a compilation in 2009, the band followed it up with it's first, self-titled, full-length album in 2011. Now this traditional heavy metal band offers their sophomore effort, Shout For Heavy Metal.

Mortician

As 'cheesy' as the title sounds, if you like your classic heavy metal, that is 'true' metal, you'll have interest in Mortician. It's classic Eighties metal, bits of melodic, speed, and power metal. The larger emphasis within each song might lean more towards speed metal. You'll hear this with Eagle Spy or Inner Self. The pace can vary, however, within songs, moderate to quick as with Promised Land, The Devil You Know, or Hate. Then with Wrong Way you get a nice, quite strong, rock groove. Mostly, there's lots of big riffs, thudding bass and thumping drums, and big guitar solos. The band wraps it all in recognizable harmony and melody, something important to true heavy metal. Yet the most interesting aspect of the band may lie with Daniel Khan's vocals. In one sense, he's all over the place. Gruff and guttural in one moment, bit high pitched elsewhere, other times straight forward and clean. Without checking the promotional one-sheet before listening, I thought Mortician had two vocalists. Call him versatile. Fundamentally, for solid and classic heavy/power/speed metal, Mortician's Shout For Heavy Metal is dead on target.

Official Trailer MORTICIAN "Shout for Heavy Metal"

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

For solid and classic heavy/power/speed metal, Mortician's Shout For Heavy Metal is dead on target.

Alphabetical Index

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]