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Dude another Seraphic Decay post? YES. (I hope I haven’t done this one before. I don’t really trust the search.) One of the finest and most desirable SD releases Mortician - Brutally Mutilated 7″. This is as low brow as music can get. There’s no way you can explain this to your parents, your girlfriend, your co-workers. You are a fucking freak if you dig this pile of excrement. The cones on your speakers will actually start to emanate the smell of wet garbage. Believe me, I know; I own this classic slab.

Listening to brutal death metal, grindcore, and other such harsh musics is what I think being a drug addict is like. I’ve never been a drug addict but I’ve heard about that shit. The first time it’s disorienting but something brings you back for a second fix, and then a third, and then you’ve got a taste for the foul stuff. Pretty soon the only people you talk to are other crackheads about the last hit you had: “dude the Traumatic - “The Process of Raping a Rancid Cadaver” demo…” (yes this is a real demo). In a word this is the most degraded catagory of music available on earth. Absolutely the lowest. However, there is something to be said for such a thing.

The incredible paradox of most death metal bands is that they are absolutely the most micro niche-specific music ever, but unlike say, “Noise”, “Lofi Black Metal”, “Hardcore”, etc. they generally require hours of practice and high levels of skill to perform. In that way I expect the late John Peel, was right in comparing the early offerings of bands like Carcass to “Free Jazz”. As they say, Jazz is made for other Jazz musicians, in that way it’s kind of vulgar and excessive, and a record like Mortician’s “Brutally Mutilated” is much the same. Virtually no one outside of genre followers can appreciate what’s on display on this record. A side note here, the level of skill is actually fairly low for a death metal record, which maybe actually insulates it more from the understanding of outsiders. At least on some level even the most uninitiated have to admit that “Left Hand Path”has skillful performances, whether they can appreciate the sound or not. The skill level on Brutally Mutilated though, probably gets up to a 4 on a scale of 1-10. Sloppy performances, simple riffs, and the band is never all that in sync. To me this makes for a better listen. It’s the difference between a CGI monster and a make-up and corn syrup job in a horror movie.

Speaking of horror movies - that’s basically as deep as it gets with Mortician. The alpha and omega of their influences. If the song titles “Mortician” and “Brutally Mutilated” didn’t flesh that out enough for you, just refer to “Necro Cannibal”. For early death metal and grind this is a pretty great single. The vocals aren’t so deep that they lose the flavor, the drums actually sound great (big boomy bass drum, very uncommon for this style), the guitars are nice and thick and not too treble-ful. A genre classic to be sure. Oh for those in the know, this is actually when the band still recorded w/ a live drummer (Matt Sicher R.I.P.).

Like I said before this is one of the more desirable Seraphic Decay items, though it comes up frequently, this was one of the bands that actually “made it” (you know… in the scene), so a lot of people want it. I’ve seen a lot on blue vinyl, some with different color covers (mine is tan). I know there’s black vinyl too. 

ps. This post shoulda gone up yesterday sorrrrry.