Legacy April/May 2001
Legacy May/April 2001
The australian band Mortification is one of the oldest bands at Nuclear Blast, furthermore they are always ready for a surprise and all along are an attractive topic because of their positive attitude for the christianity. Well, usually dedicated christians are not my job but because I have met Steve Rowe and found him to be a friendly person here in Krefeld in 1995 I wanna use this occasion as a short stock-check. This wasn't an easy job because Steve was short sighted before a difficult ocular operation (which he fortunately overcame well) and I had to send him my email in size 20 so that he could read it at all. Let's start with their newest release "The Silver Chord Is Severed", which needs a few passes till you get warm to it. But then it astonishes with a Motörhead-equal kick-butt sound and a strange underswelled aggression of the slower songs. They dislodges miles and miles of their Death Metal roots à la "Scrolls of the Megilloth".
Is Mortification a musical chameleon? Wouldn't it be easier to have more than one band, so you won't disappoint the audience with an album that's not their style?
Many bands developed themselves, think about Sepeltura, Napalm Death, Metallica or Megadeth. Our artistic fun, to invent ourselves new again, it is as important as the cognition that we have to stay metal. One funny thing is, that I can only count 2 of our 12 albums in the last 13 years (two with Lightforce 1987/1988 and ten with Mortification between the years 1990 and 2000) as Death/Grind albums, although I think that "Scrolls of the Megilloth" is our more public one.
When I started playing at the beginning of the 80's I copied Motörhead, Manowar, Overkill etc. and I think that my music started there, even though I already heard Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Status Quo and Suzi Quattro in 1973.
Last week I turned 36 years old. When Lightforce split up and I started Mortification, we were at a Napalm Death/Bolt Thrower trip, we approached it another way. The first Mortification album "Break the Curse 1990" was more Kreator-equal Thrash with classical Metal. By the way, I just rereleased this album.
My interest in all metal styles makes sure that my songwriting stays interesting and develops itself, instead of getting boring.
If you check out the church(es) today is it still easy to be a good christian?
Everyone seems to offer something extreme, we offer the most extreme alternative in which we believe firmly.
I think that many satanic bands only use it as an image. Yes, the "church" has to give many answers referring to their mistakes. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Christians are also only humans with mistakes like everyone else. God is the creator of this universe and Jesus Christ is God walked on this earth. I think that He is the only way to eternal life. Our whole calendar, christmas, easter and time revolve around man got God!
This is something that you can't just throw away and not notice it. Obviously it is something that everyone has to think about, whether you speak about an eternity with or without GOD.
Isn't it for you, Steve, a problem to appear in a magazine like Legacy, where 90% of the appearing bands have an antichristian image or represent this opinion?
No. we play with many mainstream metal bands of all religions and we are accepted and respected in the metal scene community over here.
In 1994 we played the Full Force concert in Germany with Napalm Death, Entombed and Sick Of It All, so we are already a part of bigger things. This is where we wanna be. It's senseless to play only in front of christians.