• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

I remember seeing the ads for this album back in 1999—quite the attention catchers with this artwork. I didn't pick this up at the time because that really wasn't my thing since I didn't start listening to extreme metal until 2000. I heard a few songs by the band in the years that followed but never ended up picking this up. Relapse reissued the album for the 20th anniversary on limited-edition vinyl.

It's pretty obvious from the artwork—and the band's name for that matter—that this is not slow elevator music. Mortician play it pedal to the metal. They're crazy fast and crushingly heavy, so much so that they may be too much to stomach for even the seasoned extreme metal aficionados. Additional to the heaviness are the deep growls that try to match the speed of the music. Not exactly my favourite style of growls, but absolutely perfect for this album. There is some narration (fake newscasts, some creepy dialogues) that I found distracting at first, but ultimately they fit into the whole horror/murder concept of the album and you kind of get used to it. Fans of the original When a Stranger Calls movie will smile at the intro.

Chainsaw Dismemberment sounds exactly like what you'd expect based on the title. It's a wall of high-speed brutality that is bound to displease a lot of people because it sounds so over the top but, you know, sometimes it just feels good to overindulge. ;)