Published on Oct 24, 1999
I got an e-mail recently from reviewer Paul Hanson, who happens
to write for more magazines and sites than just “The Daily Vault.”
“Hey,” he said, “did you get that new Mortiis CD? Does that disc
suck, or what?” Okay, now I had a reason to listen to bump
it up in the “to be reviewed” list.
When you look at the cover art for Mortiis’s latest disc
The Stargate, you expect this to be a CD filled with
speed-freak death metal and brutal screams passing for vocals. At
least that’s what I was expecting — until I put the disc in my CD
player, hit “play,” and proceeded to slowly watch my jaw drop.
Two minutes passed, then four, then eight — this couldn’t be
all building to the fierceness, could it? Or is this melodious,
Gothic-like music I hear the basis for Mortiis’s work? There is
rarely a guitar to be heard on
The Stargate, and this disc brings to mind memories of such
works as Glenn Danzig’s
Black Aria – that is, albums whose message isn’t in lyrics,
but in the picture that the music paints.
Does it suck, as Paul suggested? Not to my ears — though it
needs some variety. More on that in a minute.
One could easily question whether this music is demonic or
“black metal” — and I would dare to say “no” to both labels.
Granted, the stories in the liner notes for each song suggest that
the meaning of the music and the stories is up for individual
interpretation — but I don’t see anything particularly dark or
threatening about either.
Yes, the music on
The Stargate is plodding, and is very Gothic-like in its
structure. I guess that would qualify as being “dark.” But it’s
nowhere near the demon-feast I expected the first time I popped
this into the player. If anything, its operatic qualities will
surprise the listener — and I found it to be an intriguing
listen.
This isn’t to say that
The Stargate is a perfect album. If I had one criticism to
level against Mortiis, it would be that he needs to inject some
variety into the songs he’s creating. Often, it seems like the same
rhythmic pattern is being hammered home until it gets to the point
of overkill. What starts off as a song I’d get interested in like
“World Essence” is quickly reduced to so much repetition that I
find myself losing focus. Fortunately, on later cuts like “Army Of
Conquest / The Warfare (Ever Onwards)”, there is this variety
thrown in — otherwise, this 13-minute track would have been a
chore to listen to. With the change-ups, it passes quite
quickly.
The Stargate is definitely not an album for everyone, nor is
it the kind of demon-drooling material you’d think it would contain
based on first look at Mortiis himself. (Would
you buy a used car from this man?) But if you can get past
some of the repetition of musical themes, you may find that Mortiis
has created an album that dares to break the mold of traditional
heavy metal and tries to merge it with the classical and Gothic
worlds. The thing is, he nearly succeeds.