Remember when Roadrunner Records had the hardest hitting metal roster and a slew of death metal classics to back it up? Mortuous remembers. Mortuous remembers it so vividly that they’ve recorded their debut album Through Wilderness (Tankcrimes) and crammed it full of some of those seminal Death Metal sounds. Not unlike Gruesome, Mortuous pays homage and respects its elders, but it never comes across as re-warmed leftovers.

Where they do differ from Gruesome is that instead of solely just drawing inspiration primarily from Death, Mortuous pulls from a catalog ranging from Obituary, Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse, Arise-era Sepultura as well as the aforementioned Floridians. Taking inspiration from those vintage sounds is well and good, but what makes Through Wilderness is the quality of the players. Drummer Chad Gailey is the driving force of every song with his relentless pace, technical finesse and lack of studio touchups. His double-kicks never cease, even in the mid-paced crusher ‘Crysalis of Sorrow’ and the frantic tom fills on ‘Anguish and Insanity’ really allows the song to pop from the rest.

Guitarists Colin Tarvin and Mike Beams are no slouches either as evidenced by the fret assault that is ‘Bitterness.’ Tarvin and Beams are very good at lulling you to a state of calm before kicking the door in and unleashing waves searing riffs and scathing leads. That quiet before the storm approach is also utilized wickedly in the hammering ‘The Dead Yet Dream’ which finds the guitarists in a wonderfully brutal duel. And of course, in the grand Death Metal tradition set forth by Alex Webster and Steve DiGiorgio, Clint Roach’s rubbery bass is heavy in the mix. Roach’s basslines swim just beneath the surface on jams like ‘Chrysalis of Sorrow’ and ‘Anguish and Insanity’ but when he wants to they are as nasty as a Florida gator’s bite.

Is this a case to be made for the “good artists copy, great artists steal” debate? Nah, call what it is… a fucking great Death Metal album.

9.0/10

HANS LOPEZ