SPna’s post about his introduction to black metal got me thinking about my first experience with metal. For me, it was back in 1996. At the time, having grown up in a rather religious home, I was still listening to Christian music, mostly the local contemporary Christian radio station, so the majority of my music collection was pretty tame rock stuff. At some point they started doing a show later in the evening showcasing heavier Christian stuff, and I started listening to that a great deal. Eventually this would lead to my discovery of bands like Circle Of Dust, Argyle Park, Chatterbox, and The Crucified, but the first three were industrial and the last was more hardcore/crossover.

One evening, they played a song called ‘Your Life’ by Mortification. The song features a couple points where bassist/vocalist Steve Rowe shouts the title during an instrument-free break in his later-years thrash scream, and the DJ for some reason found this hilarious and grabbed a clip of it and started playing it at random points during other songs, while he was talking, while other people were talking… the overall effect was actually really funny, but the music stuck in the back of my mind. So, on one of our trips into town I got my parents to stop at the local Christian bookstore that actually sold modern music and was able to acquire a copy of Mortification’s The Best Of Five Years, a greatest hits compilation at that point in their career.

What I found on that album blew my mind.

Now, Mortification has always been a band that was all about evolution of sound. They’ve really never maintained the same sound from album to album, and while the revolving lineup around Rowe might be related, Rowe’s own experimentation is at the heart of it. The Best Of Five Years served as a perfect showcase for these changes, covering the band’s first six albums and a live album, with two tracks from each in chronological order. It started with Mortification’s thrashy beginnings on Break The Curse, moving on to their death metal albums on Mortification, Scrolls Of The Megilloth, and Post Momentary Affliction, the more thrash/groove oriented Blood World, and ending with the tribal Primitive Rhythm Machine.

In that one compilation I got my introduction to a myriad of metal styles blended rather skillfully together. I went on to discover some of Mortification’s later work, although these albums were really difficult to get my hands on… EnVision Evangelene remains my favorite Mortification album to this day for its prog elements, and Hammer Of God has some pretty good stuff as well. But the early stuff is really Mortification’s strongest.

Now, it’s important to note that after EnVision Evangelene Rowe went through an extremely difficult bout with acute lymphatic leukemia, and though he survived his health has not been the same, nor has his songwriting. He’s still a very talented and underrated metal bassist, and although he hasn’t used his death vocals in a long while, his gutteral vocals on Scrolls Of The Megilloth are some of the best death metal vocals you will ever hear. It’s unfortunate that so much of their lyrical content can be preachy, because the songs are really great.

I listened to The Best Of Five Years so many times that I nearly wore a groove in the disc. I knew the songs front to back; my mind was blown by the drumming (especially on the last two tracks), the vocals scared me, and the music was by far the heaviest thing I had ever heard. I still listen to Mortification on occasion, and I wish I had some on my mp3 player right now, because I’m jonesin’ something fierce.

So… how did you guys get started on metal?

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3. The Bloody Roots Of Grindcore Day 5: Napalm Death – Scum
4. The Bloody Roots Of Grindcore Day 3: Repulsion – Horrified
5. The Bloody Roots Of Grindcore Day 2: Cryptic Slaughter – Convicted