MORTIFY — Fragments at the Edge of Sorrow (review)

MORTIFY — Fragments at the Edge of Sorrow album cover

Album · 2022 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-03-31
siLLy puPPy

One of the twelve bands of the world named MORTIFY, this particular band comes from the city of Concepción in central Chile. This MORTIFY has been around since 2013 and has released an EP and two albums, the latest being FRAGMENTS AT THE EDGE OF SORROW fresh out in late March of 2022. This band has gone through many lineup changes in its nine year existence with the current one consisting of Alonso Villar (drums), Benjamin Araneda (guitars), Cristian Fuentes (guitars, vocals) and Diego Gonzalez (bass, vocals).

This band has found a way to bleed through the crowded din of the death metal world by sticking to somewhat “normal” death metal but by keeping tempos somewhat slow yet not really qualifying to exist in the death-doom category. Somewhat of a mid-tempo death metal band although faster tempoed outbursts occur, MORTIFY has also learned how to add just enough elements of progressive metal to keep things a bit different without getting overly artsy which seems to alienate a lot of purists in the death metal world.

FRAGMENTS AT THE EDGE OF SORROW is an interesting album indeed and although no direct comparisons come to mind, i would say that stylistically the band employs the old school ethos of bands like Pestilence, Obituary, Autopsy, Morbid Angel and pretty much everyone else only keeping things more on a slower burn without ever really getting into rampaging death metal territory. From a contemporary point of view, it does seem that MORTIFY has learned a trick or two from more modern bands like Blood Incantation in its ability to adopt various passages in the psychedelic rock world. Interesting deviations from percussion are also common.

On the progressive front, the band itself claims Gorguts and Death as influences on its Bandcamp page but there’s nothing that really evokes the spirit of those prog death bands save a few moments of jittery time signature changes that offer a respite from the regularly scheduled program of mid-tempo death metal somewhere between the world of death-doom and old school freneticism. What’s unique about MORTIFY, at least on this album (i’ve not yet encountered previous works) is that it does provide an interesting methodology in patchwork constructivism of various death metal ideals laced with non-metal moments.

What i love about some of these newer bands from various nations that are basically newcomers on the metal block is that they aren’t afraid to bring back some of the more successfully elements of the original styles of metal and steer them in newer directions not taken by the original pioneers of the various metal sub-genres. MORTIFY sounds like an old school death metal band from the mid-90s that was taking such an adventurous route as it retains the old school qualities of a death metal band while forging ahead in hitherto unforeseen territories. While the band does sound a bit retro in that regard, i can’t say that these guys really sound like any other death metal band i’ve experienced.

The strengths of FRAGMENTS AT THE EDGE OF THE SORROW is that it has diversified enough compositionally speaking to really craft an in-between-the-cracks scenario of death metal that should have happened in the mid-90s but didn’t however it also falls into the trap of wearing out its welcome with many of the tracks extending beyond their logical conclusion and at a playing time of nearly 50 minutes seems a bit too long for the attention span of 2022. Maybe it’s just me but i think this could’ve been trimmed down a bit. Overall not a bad release in a corner of the metal universe that continues to evolve. Hoping to see improvement in the future but overall this is a decent album.