Mortal Sin: thrash bandits

Wed 12th Dec, 2007 in Features

Australia’s Mortal Sin began way back in 1985, and could probably be considered Australia’s first thrash metal band; and they have a long and interesting history. All those years ago they recorded a demo at 301 Studios in Sydney, that they ended up making into an album. This album, the eponymous Mayhemic Destruction fell into the hands of Phonogram Records in London, and the rep who got it was blown away. He actually thought it was the follow up to Kill – œem All by Metallica, and this thrust Mortal Sin out into the limelight. Needless to say, an unknown band from Australia being signed to a major label in the UK was pretty astonishing at the time.

The band’s second album Face of Despair which was released in 1989 helped to ensure their spot supporting Metallica on that band’s first ever tour of Australia, which happened in the same year as Mortal Sin’s second release. Hot on the heels of this coup, the band toured Europe with Testament, the UK with Faith No More, and also some shows in the United States with bands like Biohazard and Wrecking Crew.

On the US tour, some events occurred that caused vocalist Mat Maurer to question his priorities, and he left the band on its return to Sydney. The band carried on with Andy Eftichiou at the helm and recorded Every Dog Has its Day, but was disbanded not long after. In 1996, four founding members Mat, Wayne Campbell, Andy Eftichiou and Paul Carwana re-formed for a national tour and a shot at writing a new album. Two years and two guitarists later, they recorded Revolution of the Mind, but Mortal Sin found it difficult to break back into the market and again disbanded in 1998.

In 2003, not giving up without a fight, Wayne Campbell and Mat Maurer decided that they had to give it one last shot because music is so important to them. As Mat Maurer said, – œmusic was our life, and we couldn’t really exist without it.’ So, they made contact with bassist Andy Eftichiou and found guitarists in Joe Buttigieg and Mick Sultana who both played in thrash band Addictive. With this line-up, they finally felt that they had a partnership that would work, and began rehearsing for their first show, also recorded live for a DVD release, titled Out of the Darkness.

Then, in 2005, Mortal Sin were inducted into the Australian Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, let go of long standing drummer Wayne Campbell and guitarist Joe Buttigieg, and enlisted the help of Nathan Shea on guitar and Luke Cook on drums. Seven weeks later, they toured Australia with the re-formed Anthrax line-up. For the remainder of that year, and into 2006, they wrote and rehearsed for their latest release An Absence of Faith.

Twenty years is a long time for a band to be together, to disband and reform, and not give up the ghost. I asked Mat Maurer whether the journey from Mayhemic Destruction to An Absence of Faith has felt like a long one.
– œWhen you sit down and dwell on things like that you can definitely feel the test of time,’ he said. – œTwenty years is a long time for a thrash band who has never had radio airplay, or even a video clip to help the band survive. I guess we have survived on blood and guts!’

The band’s first two albums were of a calibre that still makes fans of the band get excited. But, like with a great many metal bands who experience enormous success early, fans tend to get stuck in one groove and find it difficult to move on.
– œI kind of subscribe to theory that you can’t please all of the people all of the time,’ said Mat, pointing out that if they were in a band to please anyone but themselves they probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as they have. – œI believe that if you write what’s deep in your heart and soul and you can truly be happy with what you write, and of course you can bang your head to it, that everything else should fall into place. For fans to think that every album should sound like Mayhemic Destruction is pretty much an injustice to us as musicians. Yes, we could have easily done an album that replicated our first, but what kind of challenge would that have been for us as musicians? Ok, so Status Quo can do it, so can ACDC, and they’ve made shitloads of money doing it too, but Mortal Sin is about challenging itself and pushing boundaries. I’ll try my best to make every song different to the last.’

This latest release, An Absence of Faith was produced differently than other albums Mortal Sin have worked on. The primary difference was that the band took their time. They were able to do this because they had no specific time-frame in which to create it, a circumstance that came about due to the absence of a record deal. The band was able to work with the material until they were extremely happy with every song individually. They also had the luxury of being able to spend nearly six months in pre-production, guided by themselves and their own instincts. Their producer, Phil McKellar, on first listening to the songs, said that there would be no need to change a thing.
– œHe said we knew exactly what we were doing, and that he would only help us get the sound we needed to the make the album we wanted to hear on our own stereos,’ Maurer recalled with enthusiasm. – œWhen we finally raised the cash to get into the studios, we spent just four days recording and two days mixing the album. My vocals for the ten songs were basically finished in nine hours, and many guitar solos were done in one take, and double-tracked in another take!’

Mortal Sin has always been quite a political band, and their latest release is not exempt from politically-driven lyrics. One of the tracks particularly, Tears of Redemption , reflects current political tensions worldwide. I asked Mat Maurer why he chooses to create material that arises from world events or worldwide political changes. He told me that it is primarily because these types of stories are ones that people can relate to.
– œIf you’ve seen something on the news or read about it in the paper, it’s easy to understand the storyline. Rather than write about some far off land that nobody has ever heard of in some fantasy story about wizards or pirates, I prefer to write about what I know, and hopefully what other people know,’ he said. – œControversy is high on my agenda. If I feel strongly about a subject that might be taboo, I will write about that because I can. If someone tells me I can’t write about a particular topic, I will tackle that topic head on. That’s the beauty of free speech. As a vocalist and writer, I can express views that pass off as creative writing!’ Maurer enthused. – œI also enjoy putting in hidden meanings, writing between the lines, irony and metaphors, that, if you love analysing lyrics, you will have a field day with most of my lyrics!’

But besides this, Maurer indicates that validity is also important.
– œIf people feel your lyrics challenge society or politics, or that you stand for something, I feel that credibility creeps in, especially if you strike a chord in someone who feels they may have been – œdone’ by society or politicians.’

Mat Maurer is a founding member of Mortal Sin. Because of this, and because of the fact that he has played with a huge number of bands, locally and internationally, I wondered which bands have made the greatest impression on him. He likened it to playing sport: that you might be great in your own country, but that it’s not until you compete against another country that you get a true sense of where you sit on an international skill level.
– œPlaying with international bands gives Mortal Sin a chance to raise to another level of professionalism. We learn something every time we play, and when its with someone like Metallica or Anthrax, we always ask questions and check out how they do things. They become our mentors, and we study what they do so we can hope to get to their level.’

To this end, I asked Maurer what he considers the best show or tour would be that his band has played on. His response was that for various reasons every tour has been memorable, but that the Metallica tour would probably top the list.
– œThe year of 1989 was pretty phenomenal for thrash, and for Mortal Sin, and being chosen to support them on their first ever tour of Australia was as good as winning the lottery. Testament in Europe taught us that even if you are a small band from Australia, you can still cause a raucous in Europe. Just recently playing at the mighty Wacken Open Air festival in Germany would go close to topping the list, simply because we had so much to prove in 2006, and Europe opened their arms for Mortal Sin once again.’

All of these are amazing tours. So, if he could choose any current band that he would choose to play a show with, who would it be? The answer might surprise you, because it’s Dream Theater.
– œ[They are] my absolute favourite band on the planet. They have shown me that boundaries in music are only there to be explored and pushed to a whole – œnother level!’

Another fact about Mat Maurer that you might find surprising is that the whole reason he is singing is because of—wait for it—Freddy Mercury. – œYou might laugh and say he’s a faggot or something, but back in 1972 as a sprite junior burger, I heard his voice on the first Queen album (Which is still their heaviest album), and I just felt the need to sing,’ Maurer said. – œHaving been brought up in a household of older brothers, I was fortunate enough to have Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple blasting away on the home stereo. How’s that for influence? Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne and Ian Gillan. I had the perfect training ground, which pushed me in the direction of wanting to be a singer. So the answer to that question,’ he laughed, – œwould probably have to be my older brother Danny for giving me the opportunity to hear all that stuff!’

So, with such a training ground, could he name the best album ever recorded? No, actually (let’s face it, it’s an unfair question), but he could name five:
– œGeez mate, I just felt a sledgehammer hit me in the face with that question!,’ Maurer exclaimed. – œYou’d need a degree with twenty-six letters after your name to be able to divulge those kind of secrets! Could I at least give you five albums to mull over? Okay, let’s try this,’ He paused. For a long time. – œone: Led Zeppelin II, two: Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced, three: ACDC Back in Black, four: Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and five: Metallica Master of Puppets.’

It might be fair to say that Mortal Sin have, over the years, experienced more inner strife than most bands. This has been so much a factor of the Mortal Sin life, that it is extraordinary that they are still together, and still playing great metal. Fortunately, Maurer agreed with me, and told me that they have become immune to words like – œdifficult’:
– œGetting over hurdles is what we have become professional at, I think! There’s a poster on my wall that says “Fall down seven times, get up eight,” and one of Lance Armstrong (Cycling is another passion) that says “NEVER GIVE UP!”’ He laughed. – œCould we be called Australia’s most stubborn band? Our press release for this album said something like “the new album should have been called… what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger…” and I guess that pretty much sums it up for Mortal Sin—we love a challenge, and we have so much passion for what we do, that we have become immune to the word “Difficult”!’

Although – œdifficult’ might not be in the Mortal Sin vocabulary, they are probably a prime example to younger bands that it is possible to overcome adversity and still be going strong.

In the coming year, Mortal Sin will be touring Europe with Overkill in March, but ahead of that they will be concentrating on a national tour. Look out for Mortal Sin shows around the country in February 2008.

The coming year will also see the band decide whether or not to move to Europe, given that the European continent is where their primary market is. The move has been on their minds for a while, but 2008 will be the deciding year.

In closing, did Maurer have any words for the fans?
– œIf you are one of those people thinking Mortal Sin were dead and buried or weren’t prepared to spend you hard earned cash on buying our new album because of some reason or another, I suggest you google “Mortal Sin” + “An Absence of Faith” and read the reviews that the album has been getting. We are an Aussie band doing what Aussies love to do – we keep on playing even though we’ve been kicked in the guts a gazillion times….so we ask you to give us a listen and make up your own mind about Mortal Sin.’

Well said!

Mortal Sin’s An Absence of Faith is out now on Riot.