(Our supporter xBenx has compiled a series of guest posts, this being the second installment. Each one focuses on a different band that he fears may have been overlooked by the masses, and today the spotlight is on Mortal Decay.)

This one feels appropriate given that New Jersey’s Mortal Decay are about to release a new album (which is pretty good). Whilst they have undoubtedly improved as musicians, especially from a technical perspective, I don’t think they’ll ever top the feel, atmosphere, and sheer brutality of their early material. Assembled in their 1999 compilation, A Gathering of Human Artifacts, those three early symphonies of sickness are utterly putrid in their composition and completely addictive.

Pivotal to their sound was undoubtedly John Paoline, someone so far ahead of his time vocally that his clairvoyance is almost creepy when listening to these older songs now. Why this man isn’t heralded as being one of the catalysts for spawning the gazillions of guttural lunatics currently spewing rancid diatribes is a mystery, but I do know this: He was definitely one of the most distinctive “vocalists” in the realm of brutal death metal. He was also one of the most insane in terms of range and tone. Continue reading »