Artist: Mortar
Album: Ground Zero [EP]
Label: Incanned Productions
Mastered and Mixed by: Jeff Fischer
Release Date: February 9, 2013
Time to get into a time machine and hit the age when albums existed on vinyl and cassettes, when the reign of classic rock was on verge of collapsing, when computer noises hadn’t invaded the music industry, when music started taking a heavier form and somewhere in extreme west of the world, Thrash Metal was born. Thrash Metal is one of the earliest forms of heavy metal music and with no doubt was the first to bring the amount of intensity which we experience today. With development of regional scenes like the Bay Area Thrash Movement, East Coast Thrash Movement, Teutonic Thrash Movement and Brazilian Thrash Movement, thrash metal bands quickly multiplied and spread around the world. Sadly India never had any band who would play Thrash Metal in its purest form until late 2011, when Mortar was born.
Hailing from The City of Joy, Kolkata, Mortar has been labelled as the first of the kind. The band was formed in late 2011 when a couple of guys met to find that they had a common vision of forming an Old School Metal Band. The band cites influences from a lot of heavy and thrash metal bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Coroner and their sound is a brilliant amalgamation of the American and German thrash laden with some powerful screamed vocals. The band went through numerous line-up changes, until they finally settled down to release their debut EP, ‘Ground Zero’, sans a bassist. The current line-up of the band is: Nilabja on vocals, Samrat and Soham on guitars and Sayak on drums.
As promised by the band, the EP features some pure old school thrash that would just force you to throw yourself in a moshpit. It kicks off with the adrenaline filled track, ‘Napalm Messiah’. The song follows a nice structure with some splendid cult progressions and excellently laid raspy vocals throughout the track. The intro riff has been panned excessively to the left. The chorus features classic shouts from band members after every line, although they haven’t been done very effectively. The solos are a bit disappointing and needs to be worked on. ‘The Human Plague’ is flawlessly crafted song with ear-splitting progressions and mindboggling vocals. The first solo on the song is better than the solo on ‘Napalm Messiah’ although it’s a bit repetitive. The outro has got a nice German Thrash essence on it with melodious riffs and a nicely tailored solo.
‘Ground Reality’ is yet another captivating track with blood-rushing progressions, rioting blastbeats and excellent yelled vocals, which remind me of Angelripper. The solo duet towards the end is pretty kickass consisting of simple, yet good runs, arpeggios and tapped sections and demonstrates fine usage of whammy. The EP ends with a nice cover of ‘Hell Bent For Leather’ by Judas Priest. It starts with the classic riff with noise of a motorcycle engine screaming in background. The vocals are good except for chorus where they break off at high pitches. The outro features the famous progression from ‘Breaking The Law’ embedded with unclean leads.
The album displays brilliant composing and song-writing, especially with the presence of insane cult riffs and impeccable drumlines. All the songs on the album are faultlessly crafted and possess a perfect structure but the playing is not very neat and has a space for improvement. Sadly, the production of the album is a bitter disappointment. The tracks aren’t blended together nicely, panning is not good and with such promising material, this is something that should have been taken care of.
Summing up, the album is really a magnificent release by the band and a must for all heavy listeners. We look forward to more awesome releases from the band.
