Mortification - 10 year anniversary
By Scott Waters
If ever there was a name synonymous with heavy metal, it would be Mortification. The current proliferation of evangelistic metal is, in part, the result of Steve Rowe's mighty metal crusade, both through his band, Mortification, and through his own label, Rowe Productions. This is a special year for Mortification, and a celebration is definitely called for.
"This is the official ten year anniversary of the band," states Steve. "We have sold over a quarter of a million albums in that time and some incredible things have happened." Incredible indeed! How about Steve's miraculous victory over leukemia, the fact that current drummer, Keith Bannister, became a Christian during the very first Mortification tour, or how about the many lives that have been touched as a result of 10 years of serving God? "We want to bring back the true Spirit of evangelistic metal," continues Steve, "I was inspired by bands like Barren Cross, Saint, Bloodgood and Deliverance. This is where my heart is - true evangelistic metal!"
Mortification, whose beginnings date back to the classic metal band Lightforce, have come full circle. Once a full-on death metal/thrash band, Mortification has in recent years turned into more of an aggressive heavy metal band. To the dismay of some longtime fans, the last two Mortification CD's have not been the grind assault of Scrolls of the Megilloth. "Mortification has always had elements of classic metal," says Steve. "We stand by everything we have done in the past, but we are playing to a whole new crowd now. We had the same volume of crowd on last year's tour that we had in '94 and ‘96, but with a lot of new faces. Many of the fans didn't even know our older material. I truly believe this is the direction God wanted for us, especially after ‘Influence' was voted second favorite song in HM."
So what about the new album that they are now working on? "The new disc is called Hammer of God and is a progression from EnVision EvAngeline," says Steve. "This album will be for true metal warriors who are into real metal and evangelism. There will be no grind, no death metal; only true extreme metal." Ahhh yes, music to these ears. "We are really excited about this album for many reasons. First of all, we were able to record it in my new studio, Hammer of God Studio, so we were not as rushed in recording. The studio is a real blessing and something that I had been dreaming of for 15 years. Also, the sound on this album will be surprisingly heavy; massive bottom end, up-front guitars, and a very modern, extreme mix."
With such enthusiasm in Steve's voice, I was curious as to how this album will differ from Triumph of Mercy. "Triumph of Mercy was a bit of an experiment," explains Steve. "Many of the songs on Triumph were recorded much differently when we did the demo versions. I originally intended for that album to be of a more heavy metal nature. We're going to put those demo versions on the new disc as bonus tracks. Some of the big differences will be in the bass and vocals. I will be doing mostly clean vocals and I have used a lot of distortion on the bass this time around. We also added some keyboards, which is new for us. We have recorded the medley of older material we did on the last tour as a sort of farewell to the death vocals.
This album will be much more diverse lyrically as well. We're going to be using a lot of classic metal imagery on this CD. I've always been a fan of bands like Iron Maiden, Dio, and Manowar; not that I agree with their message, but I wanted to use some of that type of imagery -- rainbows, swords and things like that."
With that, I questioned whether this type of imagery would be accepted in the Christian scene. "People tend to forget that the rainbow is a symbol of God -- a promise from God," says Steve. "These things are not ‘new-age' as they are now labeled. We've written a song called "A Pearl," and what I am trying to get across in the lyrics is that Satan has stolen these images for himself. The rainbow is a gift from God and the crystal is a creation of God. We also have a song about martyrs that will be true accounts of people that have died for their faith."
Hmmm, I think I smell a bit of controversy. After all, Mortification has always been a band that stirs up a bit of controversy, if not with their lyrics or artwork, then with Steve's outspoken disappointment for the current state of "Christian hard music."
"Watering down lyrics is a waste of time," says Steve, "I have no respect for bands who are using the Christian scene to just sell their music. Don't call yourselves a Christian band if this is what you are doing. If I'm going to water down my message, I might as well do something more financially viable. It was really cool that both Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast knew we were a band that would not compromise our lyrics yet they signed us anyhow. Evangelistic metal does have an impact."
Mortification has always been a hard working band. They are again getting ready to hit the road. After they finish recording Hammer of God, they are going to be doing a European tour. "We're playing in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland," says Steve. "Once again, the death threats are starting. We have been warned that if we play in Norway, we will not leave alive."
Steve also plans on touring the States, only this time it will be without his band. "I'll be doing a ‘Steve Rowe plays Mortification' tour. I'll be playing bass and singing to tracks. This tour, however, I will be doing less speaking and more playing, as opposed to the last tour when I had a long story to tell. I will be doing some preaching dates as well. Keith and Lincoln won't be with me; Keith will be getting married this summer and Lincoln has a commitment at the University." Touring with Steve again will be Wrench, and on one stop of the tour, my band, Ultimatum, will be performing some Mortification songs with Steve sharing the vocals duties with me.
"Also in the works," says Steve, "is a live album tentatively titled Ten Years Live Not Dead, a new video, and some new things for my label, Rowe Productions. We are going to be opening an office in the States. Rowe USA will be functional by the middle of the year. We really want to start pushing the bands we have, bands that are real about metal and real about evangelism."
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