Mortal Sin — Mayhemic Destruction

First released in the year 1987 Mayhemic Destruction was the debut album from Australia's most known Thrash metal export Mortal Sin. The eight-track affair certainly shows the influence of a certain Metallica, but it also has its own charm and moments of invention- making for a punchy, though at times fairly creative debut release. Here from Dissonance Productions, Cherry Reds' metal-focused sub-label is a CD reissue of the album.

The CD comes presented in a glossy four-panel digipak- on its front cover we have the album's artwork, featuring a huge, winged demon perched on top of a blood-red sky-set Sydney opera house. The release comes with a glossy sixteen-page booklet- this features full album credits, loads of pictures/ poster artwork, and a few new write-ups about the album, it's recording, and Mortal Sin in general. So, another classy, presented reissue from the folks at Cherry Red.

Mortal Sin were formed in Sydney in 1985- with the initial line-up bringing together guitarist Paul Carwana  &  Keith Krstin , bass player Andy Eftichiou, drummer Wayne Campbell, and lead vocalist Mat Maurer. The band started heavily gigging building up somewhat of a following, and within seven months of their first live show they recorded Mayhemic Destruction- which was recorded over three days and then mixed in forty hours in the summer of 1986. The band's first run was between 1985-1993, regrouping in 1996-1998, and 2004-2012. In total the band released eight full-lengths albums over their career- with a fairly shifting line-up along the way.
 
Mayhemic Destruction first appeared in 1987 on the band's own label Mega Metal Productions- fairly soon getting picked up and released by Vertigo for a worldwide release. The album features eight tracks- with runtimes between two and seven minutes, with an album total runtime of 35.52. This reissue sees the album presented as it originally was with no bonus tracks.

The album opens with tolling to chugging riffs and bounding drum instrumental “The Curse”. As we get into the album we have “Lebanon” which starts with moody eastern riffing, before shifting into NWOBHM galloping, chugging Trash outs, and mean mosh-outs. Yes, the lead singer does display more than a few traits of early James Hetfield- but it’s not a total rip-off, well on this song at least. We have tight locked blues and wailing vocals of “Lair” which moves from gang vocal lined bounding, wailing solo lines, and meaty bounding riff outs.

Yes on the album's second half we do have tracks like “ Blood, Death, Hatred” which sounds a little too close to something off Metallica’s Kill 'Em All, with its stretched Hetfield-like growls, bass ribbed throb, crashing drums, and fist punching pace. But equally, we have speeding metal riff meets growled to chanted vocals of the title track- which features some really nice headbanging breakdowns. The early Metallica comparisons aside Mayhemic Destruction is as a good, to at times great Thrash record- with the band weaving in some interesting touches and elements to their songcraft.
 
It's certainly great to see Dissonance Productions carrying on with their reissuing of classic and cult Trash albums from the genre's golden years. If you have an interest in either early Thrash/ and or the Australian metal scene in general then this reissue of Mayhemic Destruction is something you need to track down. And for those interested in the vinyl side of things, the album is getting Opaque Red pressing in late August.