Costa Rica may not be the first country you think of when it comes to death metal, but there have been plenty of great bands that have come from there over the past decade or so. Much like black metal from Iceland, if you stumbled across any death or death/doom from Costa Rica in recent years chances are good the musicians are in multiple bands and this is the case with Mortual. Mortual’s been refining its craft over the past decade in different forms, and the core duo of Justin Corpse and Master Killer also put out some killer death/doom last year with Necroferum. But where Necroferum kept things sprawled out, Mortual goes for the throat on their debut full-length Altar of Brutality, which offers up fast paced and straight to the point death metal that’s influenced by the early Florida genre sound. It’s a familiar approach, but the album delivers one killer riff after another and will appeal to anyone who likes more direct and bludgeoning death metal.
Upon pressing play you’re immediately greeted by a maelstrom of guitar, bass, and drums that hit hard and fast. “Mortuary Rites” is an effective first song as it not only showcases the precision of Mortual’s attack but also demonstrates how effective their transitions are. The first two minutes or so make subtle shifts to the rhythms but remain focused on speed, but the band throws in a brief, chunky mid-tempo groove around the halfway point before launching back into the speed. As you get further into Altar of Brutality, the leads not only stand out but there are plenty of killer solos that help many of these songs stand out. Mortual doesn’t deliver these in the same way every time either, as “Necromancy Ritual” goes for a much flashier, noisier solo while “Divine Monstrosity” opts for its solo over a slower atmospheric passage. At times the way everything is pieced together comes through like a combination of earlier Deicide and Morbid Angel with some Monstrosity thrown in for good measure, pulling in a considerable amount of influence from that earlier Florida sound. But the band does shake things up and incorporate some other elements that help their take on death metal feel just a bit less derivative, and by the time you reach the creepy outro of “Ecstasy of Death” you’ll have been headbanging to riff after riff. There is some room for the group to vary the attack even further, but there’s something to be said for how many riffs and cool moments they cram into a concise thirty-five minutes.
The vocals on Altar of Brutality are appropriately murky and distorted, as the performances blend in with the denseness of the instrumental work initially but always manage to break free of it and grab your attention with a particular high-pitched shriek or guttural growl. What I like about Mortual’s approach is how varied it is, as sometimes they’ll head into extremely low pitches that give off a sound similar to Undergang but other sections have higher screams and shrieks that recall the more rabid South American take on death metal. Justin Corpse and Master Killer trade off vocals, which you’ll hear very early on thanks to opener “Mortuary Rites”, and the way they switch up verses from one song to the next makes a big difference.
Mortual has been refining their sound for a solid decade now, and their experience shines through on full length number one. Their core approach emphasizes denser, grittier blasting but the smartly placed slower sections and standout solos go a long way in elevating Altar of Brutality above your average death metal effort. It’s an album I’ve gotten quite a bit of mileage out of the last few weeks, and it’ll be exciting to hear how the band builds upon this foundation in the years to come. Altar of Brutality is available from Nuclear Winter Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg