Post-Post Momentary Mortification albums that are worth checking out

Sevenoneself wrote:

Pethead wrote:This is a top tier Morty song:

Can't stand it.

I kind of get you. I know what you mean. This was the beginning of the cheese era, lol. But I still dig this and PRM. Though after the first three it made me scratch my head a bit. PMR made me scratch head a whole bunch but liked it. Stopped head scratching at envision.

eatbugs wrote:Exactly!  I wonder if it could have been Post Momentary Affliction II if it had the production (and Sherlock drumming) of PMA.

Would've been down for that!

Thread title shoulda been „post post post momentary affliction albums that are worth checking out.“ 

I‘m checking out.

Sevenoneself wrote:

Pethead wrote:Yeah, but you also think AtWB is Theocracy’s best album, so you’re clearly smoking something.

One of us is smoking something...or both of us! 

I'd like to be able to indicate why my preference is this, but it's hard. I agree, both albums we're discussing have cool riffs, great production, AWESOME drumming, great playing. I just don't enjoy the style, songwriting OR possibly the arrangement. I'll spin them again and see if I can give you something more concrete!

But in the meantime, it's probably more believable that I'm smoking something, as you are the pastor with a master's! I'm a burned-out former pastor, so I'm probably smoking weed or eating 'brownies' to calm my nerves! 

Don’t get me wrong, I get not liking the style after PMA. I also agree that the first 3 are their best. (PMA being my favorite).

I personally love BW and PRM but understand why some dont and will agree the lyrical writing went down hill alot and got cheesy after Jayson left.To me the only album that held up lyrically is EnVision EvAngelene.

I have come to enjoy Erasing the Goblin and Relentless alot after going back to them though.

mothy wrote:To me the only album that held up lyrically is EnVision EvAngelene.

That's how I feel about Triumph of Mercy.  Take off "Noah was a Knower" and I'd agree with you.

So I listened to all of Bloodworld this morning and I am in the middle of PRM right now. My opinion?

Bloodworld doesn't do it for me: the riffs are cool, the bass tone and playing awesome, drums are mixed great, but the songwriting isn't to my liking.

PRM: the guitar tones grabbed me right away, they are far superior to BW in my opinion. I like the harsher, less-understandable vocals, and the guitar riffs are cooler and better. I even heard a ripping guitar solo on Seen It All and Toxic Shock; this is a sure-fire way to hook me in. And the songwriting seems to be stronger. I'm not a fan of the tin can snare, but I know that's a preference thing.

The descending guitar riff in the middle of Toxic Shock is playing right now as I right this; heavy and cool!!

Over-all I still am not a huge fan, but PRM is grabbing me alot more than 25 years ago. As I have time I'm going to listen to some of the other post post-momentary affliction albums, starting with EnEv as recommended by Mothy.

Sevenoneself wrote:So I listened to all of Bloodworld this morning and I am in the middle of PRM right now. My opinion?

Bloodworld doesn't do it for me: the riffs are cool, the bass tone and playing awesome, drums are mixed great, but the songwriting isn't to my liking.

PRM: the guitar tones grabbed me right away, they are far superior to BW in my opinion. I like the harsher, less-understandable vocals, and the guitar riffs are cooler and better. I even heard a ripping guitar solo on Seen It All and Toxic Shock; this is a sure-fire way to hook me in. And the songwriting seems to be stronger. I'm not a fan of the tin can snare, but I know that's a preference thing.

The descending guitar riff in the middle of Toxic Shock is playing right now as I right this; heavy and cool!!

Over-all I still am not a huge fan, but PRM is grabbing me alot more than 25 years ago. As I have time I'm going to listen to some of the other post post-momentary affliction albums, starting with EnEv as recommended by Mothy.

PRM has some smoking guitar work for sure.

Sevenoneself wrote:So I listened to all of Bloodworld this morning and I am in the middle of PRM right now. My opinion?

Bloodworld doesn't do it for me: the riffs are cool, the bass tone and playing awesome, drums are mixed great, but the songwriting isn't to my liking.

PRM: the guitar tones grabbed me right away, they are far superior to BW in my opinion. I like the harsher, less-understandable vocals, and the guitar riffs are cooler and better. I even heard a ripping guitar solo on Seen It All and Toxic Shock; this is a sure-fire way to hook me in. And the songwriting seems to be stronger. I'm not a fan of the tin can snare, but I know that's a preference thing.

The descending guitar riff in the middle of Toxic Shock is playing right now as I right this; heavy and cool!!

Over-all I still am not a huge fan, but PRM is grabbing me alot more than 25 years ago. As I have time I'm going to listen to some of the other post post-momentary affliction albums, starting with EnEv as recommended by Mothy.

Cant wait for your thought on EnEv

PRM had George Ochoa on guitar and I think that helped the guitar parts.

I remember Steve Rowe telling us when recording the shouting vocal parts on PMA, that Jayson Sherlock kept coming in the vocal booth and saying to Steve "what are you doing?" he was not happy with that vocal direction.
In the end I liked that Steve experimented and tried different hybrids. His bass tone and excellent vocals with the deep gutteral growls the trash shouts the shrieks the goblin styles are wicked!

Black Rider wrote:PRM had George Ochoa on guitar and I think that helped the guitar parts.

I was too lazy this morning to search and find this out, so thanks for doing the dirty work for me! I've always thought that any bands with shouted/growled/non-sung vocals need to find other ways to add interest and melody to their work. And solo guitar work is a great way that almost always fits the bill!

I’ve never really understood the antipathy for Steve’s shouts. I’ve heard far worse vocals in thrash/death.

Pethead wrote:I’ve never really understood the antipathy for Steve’s shouts. I’ve heard far worse vocals in thrash/death.

His shouts sound great with his music. And he always mixed it together with the growls. I assume he wanted to break the monotony of only doing death vocals.

Drawnsword wrote:I remember Steve Rowe telling us when recording the shouting vocal parts on PMA, that Jayson Sherlock kept coming in the vocal booth and saying to Steve "what are you doing?" he was not happy with that vocal direction.
In the end I liked that Steve experimented and tried different hybrids. His bass tone and excellent vocals with the deep gutteral growls the trash shouts the shrieks the goblin styles are wicked!

First I've heard of that. Not surprising though. I like Steve's yelling vocals on Post and Primitive and bloodworld. Thought he sounded great on those albums.

Listened to erasing the Goblin right through for the first time. It's not as half bad a s I thought it was going to be.

Post „Post Momentary Affliction“ SONG worth checking out, to remind you that early Mortification was a trio, where Mike Carlisles contribution should not be underestimated.

His riffs where furious and dark and part of the early Mortification sound.

Here is his song „dark allusions“ from Blood World, which reminds me of the early albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s8_LWb5i98

TZ75 wrote:

Pethead wrote:I’ve never really understood the antipathy for Steve’s shouts. I’ve heard far worse vocals in thrash/death.

His shouts sound great with his music. And he always mixed it together with the growls. I assume he wanted to break the monotony of only doing death vocals.

Meh...I endure Steve's shouted vocals if/when the music is stellar but don't think they're good at all.

His death vocals are legendary.

Whatever he's doing on, say, Erasing the Goblin (song) is fine.

Thrash fans being picky about vocals always entertains me. 

Pethead wrote:Thrash fans being picky about vocals always entertains me. 

There aren't many that truly bother me. Vocalists other people find annoying like Blitz from Overkill, Snake from Voivod, and even Dave Mustaine don't bother me at all (though Dave's vocals can be painfully horrid live). There is a short-list of death/thrash/black metal vocalists that have truly bothered me. Steve has been on the short-list. 

Just a few years ago I would have listed him as one of, if not the worst vocalists in any band. His death metal vocals are fantastic, legendary as someone stated above. His shouted vocals had been like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. Particularly the tracks Jehovah Nissi and Buried Into Obscurity on Envision Evangeline were all-time embarrassing intro's for me. When I bought that album and heard those tracks I couldn't even listen to them. When the music was better on Blood World, Primitive, they bothered me less. Yet, because of them I never went beyond EE as a result.

That said, today, just in the past few months, I've found I've come around more. I think spending some time listening to Vaughan of Grave Forsaken (also an Aussie), who has a similar tone, helped. I hated Vaughan's vocals as well but the music was so good I listened to and then began to like his voice more. Coming back to Steve I liked him better. When the music stinks however, I have less tolerance. Unfortunately Mortification is prone to a lot more mediocre music than a lot of other bands.


Example of Vaughan's vocals on one my favorite tracks from Grave Forsaken:

Vaughn is very similar. I generally think of GF has being similar overall to Morty (albeit more consistent, but with lesser highs).

Now for an all-time thrash vocalist:

Still cant stand Grave Forsaken vocals no matter how much I try I cant get through even 1 song. On the flip side Ive never had an issue with Steves shouts.

.

When Steve first introduced his clean shouts on “Human Condition” I thought it was a nice contrast. But that was when he still did majority growling. I think he integrated the shouts nicely on the following albums like Blood World. By the time he released Hammer of God, I was used to it. Luckily he usually added some growls for the old school fans.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! Sounds like Blood World and Primitive Rhythm Machine are generally well-received and after that it's a mixed bag. Anyone have any thoughts on Skelataur? I think that's the only one I haven't seen mentioned yet. Its artwork is definitely ridiculous, lol.

I listened to pieces of Primitive today and I really liked it! I like the shouted vocals and the snare sound doesn't bug me at all, probably because I've heard a similar sound in black metal before.

CrimsonWarrior wrote:Thanks for the recommendations everyone! Sounds like Blood World and Primitive Rhythm Machine are generally well-received and after that it's a mixed bag. Anyone have any thoughts on Skelataur? I think that's the only one I haven't seen mentioned yet. Its artwork is definitely ridiculous, lol.

I listened to pieces of Primitive today and I really liked it! I like the shouted vocals and the snare sound doesn't bug me at all, probably because I've heard a similar sound in black metal before.

I quite enjoyed Skeletaur. It’s not in the upper echelon of their post-PMA stuff, but it’s far better than the two that preceded it (Scribe of the Pentateuch and The Evil Addiction Destroying Machine). Lincoln Bowen is a good guitarist. The drums are pretty dull, though.