Triumph of Mercy

Due to the relentless evolving musical path Mortification chose very early on Triumph Of Mercy is their pinnacle in two ways: lyrically is the most extreme concept since Steve Rowe almost die due to a deadly leukemia so the lyrics revolve around this painful experience. Musically, however, as far as the last albums that I have listened to this is by miles the worst


I’d dare to say if you listen to ‘Mortification’ or even ‘Post Momentary Affliction’ this is a completely different band. Even worst is the fact that when promoting the album back then it was compared to SOTM! Not in a million years, this one certainly lacks heaviness, grind core, speed, well…pretty much all. However, I disagree with those morons who think they always buy a cd because of the music and the lyrics are no matter of importance. Those are complete idiots and ignorant and regardless of the thematic content the lyrics are always and in the end what an album is about. I am being objective because I like intelligent and challenging lyrics not matter if they are Christian or dark or tragic poetic (as those from Emperor) or fantasy-magic as in power metal, etc.


This album could be described as commercial thrash metal in the vein of new Megadeth with punk influences, hardcore influences, commercial melodic death metal and some other genres present. This new path began with Envision Evangeline but here it simply did not work. 85% of the songs are bad. We get a lot if rhythm mid tempo parts which are cool and very enjoyable since ultra heavy death metal annoys my ears after an entire album (exception Obituary and Cannibal Corpse whose albums are short and concise, straight to the point).


‘At war with war’ opens and it is actually not that bad. It is enjoyable; the problem lies with the guitar distortion which is horrible. The drumming department is more than terrible (said that with my EE review). It has nothing remarkable, not powerful and not death metal at all. The vocals certainly are out of shape. I give him the credit for singing death metal in his condition and the normal screaming fits the music. Thou, we all know Steve Rowe is not the best death metal singer when it comes to regular screaming voice. In this case the bass comes forth more than in other albums. The good part is that we now get a lot of guitar solos which is cool. Bass interludes are also present and again sometimes they are very disharmonic.


‘Triumph of Mercy’ goes next and now we get a bad song. I think he wrote the lyrics and he just simply put some music on it. Not bad if the result works out fine but with this one it simply did not work. The drumming rhythm part is super monotonous and the fast parts sound awful, simply that, terrible. What is cool is the tempo changes, very progressive and well structured but the flow of the song is what I have problems with due to the inconsistency of the lyrics FOR the music. The song has a spoken part very dark and growled with the bass going along. I would say this is a bass driven song. ‘Welcome to the Palodrome’ is a very good song, cool melodic guitars, very funky bass sound. The problem goes along with the drums again because they are lifeless. But the tempo and the flow are cool. The bass overshadows the guitar again. ‘From your side’ is a mid tempo song, very soft and very Megadeth and Metallica’s new metal style, commercial and rhythm guitar based with cool melodies on it. ‘Influence’ is a slow song and as bad as that from Bride which shares the same name. New Megadeth riffing style is again present. ‘Raw is the Stonewood Temple’ is another regular song. The mid tempo is cool but the regular voice parts suck. The grinding vocal parts are not bad. Cool melodies all around and very cool flow. ‘Unified Truth’ is completely forgettable and it resembles ‘The Destroyer Beholds’ in the pace, rhythm and tempo changes but of course without any heaviness. ‘Visited by an angel’ is what we could describe as Mortification’s first ballad and it is actually very good. It has a good melody and a good flow and the rhythm mid tempo part with the solo is very very good.. Kind of weird to close an album with a ballad but Steve Rowe is known for doing ‘non-standard’ things.


As far as I have heard ‘The Silvercord is Severed’ is even worst but I have not wanted to get more disappointed. For what is worth due to the commercial appeal this is one of the best selling Mortification records that it’s going to be reissued with some bonus tracks. I back up Steve due to his strong beliefs and under his health condition he was able to keep his brain working and he came up with some good parts but as for the album itself it does not deserve high scores because it simply lacks everything you can expect from this band.

Mortification, although being quite a heavy handed Christian band, did put out the decent album, Scrolls of the Megaloth, way back when. This album is a lot further down the road, and apparently was recorded when Steve Rowe was dying of cancer. I'm surely not going to be nasty because of his illness, but this album sounds like dying. Seriously. And I don't mean that in a good way at all.

The production blows serious donkey dick, first of all. Guitars are castrated beyond all recognition...it's as if someone went into the studio and turned both the lows and mids down on the guitar tracks. And the same goes for the drums and the bass. This takes the "heavy" out of heavy metal, making it sound approximately like a tin can rattling around. Very irritating.

Steve's vocals sound like a whisper, sometimes a bit of a moaning James Hetfield, but always really weak. Sure, he was sick, I know, but this is really, really bad. He's a competent and innovative bassist, as well, and it does show on some songs, such as "Raw Is the Stonewood Temple," which features some jangling, bizarre bass riff in it. The problem is that this whole effort needed A LOT of polishing up. Instead you get song that have potential, and songs that outright suck and suck again.

"At War with War" could have been a strong lead track, with a slamming blast beat and tremelo riffs, but with the inherent problems, it becomes a frustrating mess instead. "Raw is the Stonewood Temple," as I have said, has some strange groove to it that is interesting to listen to. "Unified Truth" tries, oh so hard, to be a kind of doomy, Morbid Angel sludge track, but without bottom end and balls, it instead crawls around in circles on the floor. "Visited by an Angel" starts off as some sort of slow, dirgy song, and towards the end speeds up to some sort of melodic, galloping speed metal thing, as if it's supposed to be uplifting. If it weren't for some off notes in the solo and the weak sound, it might actually be good!

"Yes," I can hear myself say. "Run to the light, little one. Reach your end. And never come back again."

Now for the real shit. The title track drags on, and on, and on...this is probably supposed to be some sort of epic track, but instead it just goes nowhere and comes back. Nothing, I repeat, nothing of interest here. "Welcome to the Palodrome," "Influence," and "From Your Side," are pretty worthless on their own right, further hampered by the horrid sound of this album. What is even more irritating is that Mortification seems to enjoy using weird, possibly even incorrect, scales and chords. It seems like they'll have a riff going, and then hit a sour note or two, and completely derail the entire thing. I don't know if this is done on purpose, and I do enjoy dischordant music, but there is something really, really wrong here, as well as on other Mortification albums.

My main problem with Mortification is not that they are serious about their lyrical content (they could be singing about finger fucking toasters, for all I care), it's that it seems that their lyrical content takes prevalence over their music. It seems that the riffs were composed just to have something to back up the lyrics, whereas it should be the other way around.

This is one of the most weak and confused albums I have ever heard.