Rating: 5.2

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Alarma Records

Track list:
1. XXX Maniak – ‘Hacked up for Barbecue’
2. Depression – ‘Bloodcraving’
3. Fleshbomb –‘Zombie Apocalypse
4. Carnavage – ‘Slaughterhouse
5. Rigor Mortis – ‘Dead and Buried’
6. Huevo Duro – ‘Lord of Dead Pt. 2’
7. Grandma – ‘Stab’
8. Venereal Disease – ‘Cannibal Feast
9. Brutal Noise – ‘Island of the Dead’
10. Sewage Sammich – ‘Fog of Death
11. Screaming Afterbirth – ‘Cremated’
12. Cannibal Motivation – ‘Annihilation’
13. Sodomy Torture – ‘Drilling for Brains’
14. Serrando Codos – ‘Massacred’
15. Inbreeding Sick – ‘Devoured Alive’
16. Iron Buttler – ‘Ripped in Half’
17. Gangrena Febrosa – ‘Barbaric Cruelties’
18. Katalepsy – ‘Rabid’
19. Umbilical Fetal Strangulation – ‘Brutally Mutilated’
20. Monigo – ‘Zombie Apocalpyse’
21. Horrisono – ‘Mangled’
22. Axon – ‘Hacked up for Barbecue’
23. Necrocannibal – ‘Driller Killer’
24. 3:15AM – ‘Final Bloodbath’
25. Klysmaphiliac – ‘Cannibalized’
26. Bloodthirst – ‘Slaughterhouse’
27. Methadone Abortion Clinic – ‘Three on a Meathook’
28. Atavism – ‘Silent Night, Bloody Night’
29. Funeral Rape – ‘Decapitated’
30. Rot – ‘Silent Night, Bloody Night’
31. Obscene – ‘Bone Crusher’
32. Social Shit – ‘Massacred’
33. Bestial Devastation – ‘Voodoo Curse’
34. Carnivore Mind – ‘Silent Night, Bloody Night’
35. Ancient Necropsy – ‘Apocalyptic Devastation’
36. C.A.R.N.E. – ‘Dr. Gore’
37. Vomit Slit – ‘Ripped in Half/Drowned in Blood medley’
38. Corpsefucking Art –‘Bloodcraving’
39. Lymphatic Phlegm –‘Blown to Pieces’

Tribute to Mortician - Various Artists (Compilation)

Death/Grind tribute albums eh? They're a funny ol' thing. These days, everyone ‘n' their mate have got one. The works of Carcass, Impetigo, Brutal Truth, Regurgitate, Cripple Bastards and, heck, even Gut have all been celebrated by such record label projects, involving the poolin' of dozens of cover versions recorded by hordes of acts keen to show their appreciation of their influences. The tracklistings to these things usually contain five to ten tracks submitted by fairly prolific, current underground acts with adequate to very good production, whilst the remaining content descends into an incomprehensible fuzz of basement jam snippets from a list of increasingly unknown Gore also-rans. On first look, Tribute to Mortician would appear to fit into said pattern, containing tracks from such Goregrind and Brutal Death bands as Corpsefucking Art, Ancient Necropsy, Lymphatic Phlegm, Depression, Screaming Afterbirth and XXX Maniak, with Alarma draggin' Methadone Abortion Clinic, C.A.R.N.E, Atavism and Fleshbomb out of the smelly mausoleum to join them. To fatten out the disc, they scrape up the last reekin' dregs of the Gore-scene, allowing such upstarts as Vomit Slit, Sodomy Torture, Brutal Noise and Umbilical Fetal Strangulation to submit cover versions of their favourite ‘Tician tracks.

The bulk of the material is taken from the Hacked up for Barbeque and Chainsaw Dismemberment albums, with a few from Zombie Apocalypse too. Everyone knows that the entire Mortician back catalogue follows the same threadbare arrangements, and, to this reviewer, their primordial patterns almost always appear to be based on the rule of two. Two knuckle-draggin', club-swingin' primates performin' prehistoric Brutal Death Metal, each tune containing two riffs of two notes at two speeds, the tune of course introduced by a two-minute horror movie sample. They're a pugnacious Palaeolithic duo, beatin' the life out of chugulated riffs in their rehearsal cave, its walls festooned with stone inscriptions of band logos and titles of favourite horror films, instruments fashioned from clubs, stone tools ‘n' animal viscera, plugged into amps powered with peat. But this is why I've always enjoyed a quick listen to the rumblings of these two chunky chug-thugs. Easily accessible ‘n' fast acting riff-fix, hoarse primate vokills, ridiculously unsubtle drum machine blast and searin' hot bass crackle, which when combined with the spools ‘n' spools of horror movie intros, never fails to submerge my fatigued ears in a sticky mire of undiluted atmospheric murk. By expressin' themselves through this undemandin' style of fossilised rhythms ‘n' truncated structural stultification, Mortician provide the one of the most boorish ‘n' heavy-handed Brutal Death/Grind listening experiences of all time. Sittin' pretty at the uppermost reaches of the foodchain, the band have achieved enormous popularity over the years with their unmistakable brand of brootality, recently gainin' further publicity followin' the taxi-driver threatenin', cab-pilfering antics of silly ol' Will whilst he was giggin' in Poland last year. Oh, Mr. Rahmer, put your ‘small knife' away!

I'll start with the handful of highlights, the first of which is the opening track by XXX Maniak, who many of you will of course know from the fun Harvesting the Cunt Nectar disc. Their version of "Hacked up for Barbeque" is an excellent opener, tuggin' the tune out of its monochromatic marshland to make it a much bouncier, splashier and more colourful affair altogether. Klysmaphiliac (one who derives sexual pleasure from colonic irrigation I think) chew, spew ‘n' re-chew "Cannibalised", afore spittin' it out in a rotten pile o' waspy fizz and toilet-bowl vokill borborygmus, whilst Mexican act Horrisono add deep layers o' Crust to "Mangled". Ancient Necropsy and Corpsefucking Art both put in a solid job, adding further Brootal Death bounce ‘n' slam to the Mortician blueprint with streamlined versions of "Rabid" and "Bloodcraving", respectively. Serrando Codos and Inbreeding Sick lovingly butcher "Massacre" and "Devoured Alive" with liberal overdrive and discordant, clip-riddled sound production, whilst 3:15 am do the most adventurous cover of the lot, shatterin' "Final Bloodbath" into a thousand Harsh Noise pieces. However, my favourite track of the whole lot has to be "Blown to Pieces"; which is stabbed, bagged, tagged and cold-slabbed by my beloved psychopathologists, Lymphatic Phlegm! Because of their unique, clinical cavern sound, they are the only band on the entire compilation to take a ‘Tician tune and make it all their own, scorin' meticulous cuts in its skin afore defleshin' it and wearin' the hide as a nice new autopsy coat. Unfortunately, Alarma pad out the rest of the album with either tracks of such poor sound quality that it actually feels as if my ears are clogged up with gummy wax (Grandma, Iron Buttler, Necrocannibal) or those submitted by bands with no intention of personalisin' or rejigglin' their chosen song (Brutal Noise, Carnavage, Axon, Depression), or both! It's a shame, seein' as the work of Mortician is a demonstration of Brootal Death/Grind in its crudest, most basic form, there's more than enough room there to rearrange, develop and personalise their primitive ideas.

Whilst it's something of a funny novelty at first, the wild inconsistencies in the sound quality of the tracklist soon becomes a bit of a nuisance, promptin' frequent volume control fiddlement to prevent speaker cone ruptury when a well-produced ‘n' bass-heavy track follows a tune that was recorded within a biscuit-tin.

September 8th, 2007