Steve Rowe about his sickness of cancer

"As we returned in September 1996 from an US tour they made-a-diagnosis that I have leukemia, surely it was a big shock for me, above all because the doctors gave me an one per cent chance to survive. For them it often was clear that I'd die in any case. From time to time I was indeed only a moving corpse and I wasn't able to do anything. All these drugs which the doctors gave me sucked my body. It's hard to explain, but it really was the absolute hell! My body just collapsed and at times I was totally lame so that I had to sit in the wheelchair. Besides this I was 6 weeks without awareness. At the end of this year it all went better, but at this moment I was totally addicted to morphine. Then in March 1998 we recorded our new album "Triumph of Mercy". As we were ready with the recording I first had to make a withdrawal treatment to come down of this disgusting morphine which I had been taking for 14 months. It has to be the same situation when a junkie stops taking heroine. But in the end I ended again without awareness. In April of this year the doctors gave me 24 hours to survive and they counted me as dead for the fourth time. I was again three months in the hospital and I got released from there last week. Now, I don't have any cancer in my body and I feel like myself better and better. Now we have to release our new album of course and in August we'll tour in the USA for 24 shows."

"During my time in the hospital I got several murder threats and death wishes, these blockheads left messages on my answering machine, sent me faxes and tons of letters. And this all just because Mortification is a Christian band and some satanic metalheads don't like it. But on the other side there were a lot of positive post, a lot of this out of the USA, where we sell our CD's pretty good, as a Christian band. It's unbelievable how many people wish me recovery and I'm really grateful for these people who stand behind us."