Mortification

Item: Relentless
Author: Marco Povervest

Relentless

(2002)

Reviewed by Marco Povervest

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Label Rowe ProductionsArt for the Ears2002

death metal heavy metal thrash metal

It's been a long time since Mortification had an album without an official title track. The omission of a song called Relentless is clear, yet Priests Of The Underground has that ruthless word in the chorus. Why this change of the unwritten policy? It's not the only change. Mortification has a new lineup after the departure of Lincoln Bowen. He's replaced by Jeff Lewis from Canada, and Mick Jelinic. As I understand it, all guitar parts on this album are from Lewis. And he proved to be a real shredhead. Solos were almost extinct on recent albums but on Relentless they are all over the place. And very cool solos too! Another obvious change is the cover by Troy Dunmire. This was one of my complaints about covers of previous albums as they were too simplistic and boring. Relentless has an appropriate cover that won't leave a doubt you've picked up a metal album. Musically the songs on this disc are straight forward, simple riffs, though there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes a riff is repeated too often which makes a couple of songs quite boring. On a few occasions Mortification reintroduces elements of their early material as in Bring Release, which is also one of the more interesting songs. Other tracks you must check out are Synchretize, Web Of Fire and Altar Of God. Especially the solos embellish this record and make it one of the best of the recent efforts of this Australian band. Whether that's enough to win back the old fans, is yet to be seen.