Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Mortal Sin is an 80s Australian Thrash Metal band, in fact they are the first band of this genre in Australia.They play a role in the Australian Thrash Metal Scene like Testament and Slayer do in the Thrash scene.

Mortal Sin has recently released a Full-length album, “Psychology Of Death” which is the thrash a lot of old-time fans grew up on, PURE THRASH. “This time around we said we wanted to go back to our roots, we we’re going to write an album like Mayhemic Destruction, simple old school thrash! This is by far our fastest and heaviest album to date. We really wanted to grab people by the balls with this one!” This was the quote from the band prior to the release of their last album.

I had my chance to have an interview with Slayer of Australia, MORTAL SIN and ask them some questions that you may like to know.

Hello guys, how are you doing these days? Any Shocking news?

Nothing too shocking, just a little bit of this & a little bit of that! We are on tour at the moment so we are in the mood for a whole lot of thrashing!

The previous Mortal Sin album, An Absence of Faith was released in 2007 and then it was quite a while until the next one was released. However the band was not deactive, you played your gigs in 2008 and 2009 but can you tell me what was the reason that your next album took a long time until its release?

We started thinking about writing new songs straight after the Overkill tour in 2008 but we took a couple of months off & couldn’t get back into some kind of rhythm. By the time we started to get some kind of rhythm we got the south American tour in November 2009 so we started preparing for that & before we knew it, it was already 2010! So we really had to get our shit together. On the South American tour we lost our guitarist Mick Sultana, but we continued writing new songs without him & by June 2010 Nathan, Andy & Luke had written most of the music for the new album so we sent Luke into the studio to start recording drums. While this was happening I began writing some lyrics & in the mean time there was a lot of personal tragedies going on in my life so it took quite a while to finish the lyrics. By May 2011 we had it pretty much finished so we booked some more time in the studio & finalized the recording of Psychology of Death by June 2011. We still didn’t have a record deal at this stage so we had to get it mixed, mastered & ready to send out to labels in the hope of scoring a deal.

I would like to know more about your new album, firstly, where the idea of name came from, or whose idea it was. Secondly, would you tell me who created the artwork and why did you choose them?

We chose the album title from the song titles of the album, normally we wouldn’t do ..that, but this time we had some really cool titles, so we sat down to decide which song would become the album name. We had to make a choice between Psychology of Death, Burned thrasher who has his own design company & into your Soul or Blood of my Enemies, & Psychology of Death just had a really good ring to it! The artist was Mike Morphett who is an old school thrasher who has his own design company & he asked if he could submit a design & we really liked his idea for the cover, the colours & the frustrated look of the man in the picture was really cool.

Can you tell me about the recording process- where were the songs recorded? Also, I know it was Darren Jenkins who collaborated with you on “Psychology of Death”, we had it pretty much all finwould you tell me why did you choose him? Feel free to tell us if you have any particular memories of those recording times.

When we were looking for a studio, we got asked by Stuie from LA Studios if we wanted to check out his room, which is in the same building where we rehearsed every week, so we went in & listened in while someone was recording & we thought the room was suitable for us. Andy had come across Darren from a couple of local bands in his area, so he listened to some previous recordings that he made & then Andy suggested we use him. We were a little bit apprehensive at first but he had a really good ear for thrash metal, as he was a guitarist in a great Aussie band Cryogenic in the nineties, & he was able to give us a really fresh sound, without taking away some of the aggressiveness we were looking for.

For releasing this album you signed with Noiseart Records, but I read that you contacted other record labels too. Could you tell me what led you signing this contract with Noiseart Records?

Well we talked to a few different labels after we had recorded the album. A few were interested but Noiseart was the one that we really felt could do a lot for the band. And so far the relationship has been great.

At the first look, It seems “Psychology of Death” is your heaviest album, but when I think deeply I can see how things have changed and developed in the music world over recent years. Today we have much heavier sounds than we used to and perhaps those improvements helped you, but can you also tell me if there are other factors that contribute to the album sounding this way?

Obviously the production really helped! And JENK was a great producer and really captured the picture of what we wanted this to sound like. We wanted an album that had old school leanings yet a modern, more aggressive production. I think we achieved that.

I’d like to ask about your new member, Ryan Huthnance, there is a big difference between his age and other guys, but he’s been a member of the band for a year now, so it seems that this does not cause any problem. Would you like to tell us more about him and how he has settled into the band?

The first time ryan came into the audition he blew us all way! Both with his playing and his personality. He played some stuff that we had forgotten! He is a lot younger than the rest of us but is much older in personality. The short time that ryan has been in the band he has continued to impress us with his playing, his professionalism and his dedication to this band! He is part of the family now.

25 years after forming the band, you should have many experiences, but can you tell me a particular highlight and I’d like to know your opinion about which factors make a band successful or not.

Yes, I think we have had many great experiences, playing with many great bands…. But to choose any as the best highlight would be difficult. Im asking the other band members & they are all saying something different / Wacken Festival was great, playing with Slayer was cool, playing at some particular venues like The Whiskey in LA, The Hammersmith Odeon, you know… those things are really cool as well.

Let’s talk about your plans for future, where you are going to go after finishing your THRASHFEST tour? And how long will you wait before starting to write for your seventh album?

In March we are looking to play some more shows in Australia & we hope to be back in Europe for some summer festivals as well, & we have already talked about getting some riffs together for a new album, so I guess we will see what happens.

Me personally and i’m sure many of our readers would like to know more about your monthly and weekly schedule, especially your rehearsal times.

We are not full time musicians back home in Australia so we have to do our music around a full time job. This basically means that we will work all week & rehearse on the weekends, so unfortunately we are only part time musicians!! If we ever have a big tour coming up like this `thrashfest tour, we always try to add more local shows at home & more rehearsals so that we cab get our setlist together.

Mortal Sin is an 80s Thrash Metal band and i’d like to know your opinion, which band was and is the most influential one in the whole of Thrash Metal History?

I think there are a lot of bands that are influential for different reasons, but without singling out anyone band in particular it would probably be easier just to say the big four are really what defined the whole thrash scene since the eighties.

Thanks for giving me your time and as the final word feel free to send your fans a message here.

Hope to see everyone on the road somewhere, sometime in the near future, possibly at a summer festival in Finland!!

Interview by Mohsen Fayyazi

Watch the official clip for the song “Blood of my Enemies” below: