This past October 26th I had the opportunity to hang out with Mortician’s bass player Will Rahmer at the bi-annual Chiller Theater Convention; a Sci-Fi, Horror and Nostalgia show full of celebrities, dealers and plenty of fans. I usually run into him at this event every six months. He always gets a room for the weekend at the hotel there and he decorates it with various Halloween items. He happened to have advanced copies of two of Mortician’s upcoming albums: “Darkest Day Of Horror”, a brand new album slated for a January/Feb. 2003 release , and the one I’m reviewing here, “Final Bloodbath Session”.

“Final Bloodbath Session” is a Mortician album most welcomed by any fan of the band. It was originally recorded in November and December of 2001 and is finally seeing release after unsuccessfully trying to get a distributor for it. This release marks the first time since their “Mortal Massacre” debut to feature a live drummer instead of a drum machine. (Mortician has used a drum machines on every album since “House By The Cemetary”. This also marks the first time they do not use any of the horror movie audio introductions that they usually use at the beginning of their songs. Will Rahmer told me that the reason they didn’t use the intros was to give the album as much of a live feel as possible. The live drums sound much more realistic than the synthetic sounding drum machines. The problem with the way the drum machines are sound on their albums is that the hi-hats, cymbals and ride are way to tinny at 420 beats per minute. When using a fast tempo, it’s hard to program a different pitch for those metal parts of the drum without affecting the sound of the snare, toms, and bass drums.

All of the songs are some of Mortician’s classics re-recorded with a live drummer; songs like “Zombie Apocalypse”, “Final Bloodbath”, “Cremated” and “Red Rum”. They also have another guitarist, Ron Kachnic to help out. Roger Beaujard usually programs all the drum patterns for their studio releases. On this album he accurately re-creates the programmed drum patterns by his insane and uncanny ability to play drums live. The songs are also detuned much lower than the previously released versions; octaves much lower than the depths of hell. The sound is just as heavy, thick and brutal as ever. Rahmer’s bass sound is very distorted and muffled, and the trademark cookie monster vocals are still present.

These songs make one want to run to a coffin and close the lid shut! Overall the production and mix of the songs is good, with a lot of bottom end. You are guaranteed to blow a hole in your wall, or have your floor collapse if you play this at a loud volume! After hearing these songs re-done with real drums I must say that I wish Roger Beajard would play them more often on future albums; a question I will have to ask Will Rahmer next time I seem him. This album or any type of brutal death metal is not for trendy ears. I only recommend this album to people who are really into this kind of stuff. You really need to be in the mood and state of mind to stomach this stuff. And when you are, it is digestable!