Here is another Metal group that knew exactly when to make their comeback to the Metal world. Actually they made an official comeback nearly two years ago when they arranged their old recordings that were under the covers of dust since the late 80s. Almost two years following that compilation, they finally release a debut album. This story of the Austrian band of MORTICIAN, and not the brutal Death Metal band, might strike similarities to plenty others, but in the end the most important thing is to see if it actually worked out for them after all.

Through Pure Underground Records, MORTICIAN released their long awaited self-titled debut that consists of fresh new material plus three live outputs of the older tracks from the 80s. This album was also the debut of two new members in the vocals, Khan Daniel, and drums, Nagy Gergely, posts. In general their style of Heavy Metal is related to the Germanic kind of ACCEPT and SINNER yet it is hard not mentioning JUDAS PRIEST in the equation. In addition, I also noticed a slight hint of AC / DC. Furthermore, I enjoyed the album's production served with a cutting edge that was a nice replicas of old ACCEPT releases. Nonetheless, I couldn't say the same about the quality of the material.

MORTICIAN, at least from the experience I had with this album, is a simple, straightforward band with no nonsense on the side. Though a powerful weapon and a symbol of their traditional intent, the actual composing seemed to me like if there was a lack of enthusiasm in the process. The album holds a nice load of German oriented riffs as heard on ACCEPT, and believe that MORTICIAN don't have shortages of power in their songs. Nonetheless, I expected to feel the fire of the 80s through peak moments such as the choruses, which were ok but didn't channel inspiration, riffages, which were overused and repeated quite often, and lead fretwork that could have been better. Sadly that the band didn't capitalize on that final outcome.

"Mortician", "Change Your Behavior" and "No Light" are the best of what MORTICIAN could come up with on this album. Nonetheless, I would have scanned the entire release. This album is no way bad, it has huge potential but it is scratching the average. MORTICIAN kept the old guard intact, yet it was hard to feel the wild energies of the past. If you are truly a fan of German Heavy Metal, those three tracks would be a hammering delicacy, especially with the awesome sound of the album.