Mortification (album)

Mortification is the debut studio album by Australian Christian death metal band Mortification. It was released on 12 October 1991. This album leans more towards death metal than the band's demo album Break the Curse, but retains thrash metal elements. Five songs from the demo album were re-recorded for Mortification. In 2002, The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music described the album's sound as "punk-meets-metal grind-core". A bundle containing Mortification and Scrolls of the Megilloth was released on KMG Records in 1998 and on Rowe Productions in 2015, with the latter being exclusively on cassette. Soundmass Records re-released the album with five bonus tracks in 2020, and again in 2022 with new remastering and nine bonus tracks recorded at Q.U.T. Campus Club in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 27 September 1991.

Although not as popular as its 1992 follow-up album Scrolls of the Megilloth, Mortification became reputive in both Christian and secular metal scenes for its remarkably brutal output.

Andrew Tompkins, from the Australian Christian metal band Paramaecium, and Derek Sean and Roger Martinez, from the American Christian metal band Vengeance Rising, were additional musicians on the album, with Sean contributing additional lead guitar and both Martinez and Tompkins contributing additional backing vocals; Martinez was also the producer and one of the two mixers on the album, the other being Gil Morales.

Songs
There are two short grindcore songs: "Turn" (33 s.) and "The Majestic Infiltration of Order" (1:07); the latter is commonly known as "God Rulz" because those are the only lyrics in the song and is still often played at the band's concerts. "The Majestic Infiltration of Order" was later re-recorded as "God Rulz" for Hammer of God, Mortification's eighth studio album, in 1999. Music videos were shot for "Turn," "Until the End," "The Destroyer Beholds," and "The Majestic Infiltration of Order" by film maker Neil Johnson; these videos were released on the video compilation Grind Planets. The songs "The Destroyer Beholds" and "The Majestic Infiltration of Order" were originally titled "Infectious Growth" and "God Rulz".

Artwork
Jayson Sherlock's original cover art (seen above, nicknamed the "gnarly cover") was censored by some Christian bookstores; the label shipped them a version with an alternate album cover solely containing the band's logo. The 2020 reissue contains both album covers.

Track listing

 * Songs re-recorded from Mortification's Break the Curse demo album
 * Re-recorded as "God Rulz" on Hammer of God (1999)

Personnel
Mortification
 * Steve Rowe – lead vocals, bass guitar
 * Michael Carlisle – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
 * Jayson Sherlock – drums, backing vocals

Additional musicians
 * Derek Sean (Vengeance Rising) – additional lead guitar
 * Andrew Tompkins (Paramaecium), Roger Martinez (Vengeance Rising) – additional backing vocals

Production
 * Roger Martinez – producer, mixing
 * Gil Morales – mixing, mix engineer at Pakaderm West in Los Alamitos, California
 * Mal Dennis – tracking engineer at Power Plant Studio in Carlton, Melbourne, Australia

Additional personnel
 * Joe Potter – design
 * Steve More, Andrew "Surfie" Stuivenberg – photography
 * Ed McTaggart – art direction
 * Jayson Sherlock – Mortification logo and cover artwork
 * Scott Waters (Ultimatum) – design and layout (2020 and 2022 versions), liner notes (2020 version)
 * Paul D. Clifford – remastering at PCP Studios in Australia (2022 version)