Review of the Album Mayhemic Destruction by Australian Thrash Metal Band Mortal Sin

Mayhemic Destruction is the debut album by Australian thrash metal band Mortal Sin. I had heard of these guys a while back and decided to analyze one of their albums. Mayhemic Destruction is described as an album influenced by Metallica and the assertion isn't too far off. Mayhemic Destruction was released in 1987 during the height of the heavy metal movement pretty much worldwide. Yes, I know, even I never would have thought of Australia as a sort of hotbed for thrash metal but in recent days, there has been the urge to cover metal bands from this country that have to do with more than just mere curiosity.

Note: as of 2012, the band Mortal Sin is no longer active.

The famous British metal magazine called Kerrang! considered Mortal Sin as the “next big thing” to come out at the time.

This album starts out with the slow song “The Curse” as it builds up and you can hear the bass guitar taps as well. In spite of the album's title, in this first track, there is an instrumental song that is heavy and will set the tone for the rest of the album otherwise we wouldn't have thrash metal here would we?

“Women in Leather” in terms of the riffing sounds something like the song No Remorse. The song lyrically is about a woman that is dressed and appears to dominate throughout the night. This is an interesting song that came out at the time because in 1987, metal was dominated by men. “Lebanon” is a song that lyrically is about the effects of the civil war on the country of Lebanon and there is a melodic part that is influenced by Iron Maiden. “Liar” is a song that lyrically is about a person that is in trouble with his nation because of the massive times that he has lied. Blood, Death, Hatred is the one song on this album that has even more of resemblance to the song No Remorse but it is obviously not as good as that song and it is slower as well. The next song Mortal Slaughter continues the raw sounding Metallica inspired riffing and there is even screaming too and at this time in the history of the genre, vocalists used screams very frequently in songs and this is no exception. “Into the Fire” also has that early Mercyful Fate feel to it so if you classified the song as both black metal inspired rock and thrash you would not be too inaccurate with this description. Mayhemic Destruction is an album that has lyrical themes of war, death, and destruction with a very raw sounding approach. While this album is good in its own right, I would not quite say that it is good enough for Mortal Sin to have been “the next best thing” at the time.