Mortification - Scribe of the Pentateuch

Mortification's place in Christian metal is secure. The band is one of the christian big four (Tourniquet, Believer and Deliverance) and among their peers the band's 15 albums over their 22 year career gives them a huge advantage over the three bands in the big four. While Believer has returned to life and continues to reinvent themselves, the band was silent for 15 years. Deliverance came to end in 2011 and the band was off and on for most of the 2000's. Tourniquet has been active but records and shows are few and far between.

Scribe of the Pentateuch is the band's new ep and more so than album the band has put out in the last 15 years, it's a return to the Mortification of old. But I'm not entirely convinced that's a good thing. Admittedly I wasn't a fan of Mortification until Hammer of God and the band's early death metal albums aren't my favorites. Plus I think the band's last two records (Erasing the Goblin and The Evil Addiction Destroying Machine) were two great records and Mortification had found a great balance between the power, thrash, and death metal.

The six songs on Scribe aren't full on old school Mortification but it's about as close as fans can hope for. The production is raw and gritty and feels like some of the older records. The clean vocals don't appear often but when they do, they come out of left field and feel weird. Steve Rowe's growling vocals on the other hand are solid and rich. There's been no drop off with age. Each track has a killer guitar solo (and we all know when it comes to metal, I love me the guitar solo). A couple of the edits and tempo changes seem a bit clunky and not well executed and it takes me a little bit out of the song.

The disc also features The Best of the 00's, a track from each one of the band's albums released post year 2000.

Scribe of the Pentateuch is as old school Mortification as fans could hope for. Some minor hiccups but overall, a solid death metal record.