Review: Mortiis – 'The Great Corrupter'

MORTIIS
'The Great Corrupter'
OMNIPRESENCE PRODUCTIONS

Mortiis' latest album cycle has perhaps seen the band on their best and most aggressive form too date. 'The Great Deceiver' along with it's singles in the forms of 'Doppelganger' and 'The Shining Lamp Of God' as well as the 'Demons Are Back' video showed the band giving it their all, and the results naturally were excellent.

Fast-forward and the remix companion, 'The Great Corrupter', sees release in several formats (including a streamlined vinyl offering) and boasts an impressive 28 tracks. A lot of remix albums tend to be short and hardly worth releasing in a physical incarnation, but Håvard Ellefsen seems intent on giving everyone as much bang for the buck as possible.

The names included who have lent their skills to the album is pretty impressive as well. The likes of Godflesh, Merzbow, Chris Vrenna, Pig, Apoptygma Berzerk, Je$us Loves Amerika, Martin Katscan, Wumpscut, Rhys Fulber, John Fryer, and Die Krupps – whose contributions on their own would make the album worth your cash – are just the tip of the iceberg. Acts such as Purient, Axegrinder, Le Prince Harry, Technomancer, In Slaughter Natives, Cease2xist, and Deutsch Nepal also contributing some fantastic work.

The track list moves from hard and heavy industrial metal, through to dark ambient, ebm, futurepop aggrotech, and noise inspired flavours with every band adding their own slants to the original and in turn showing off the strength and versatility of the core tracks.

Production-wise the album moves seamlessly between genres and despite some drastic sounding overhauls still keeps it's identity as a Mortiis album. That clean modern mixing with just a hint of grunge and grime around the edges keeps the continuity from the original album intact.

This is a very strong remix album. One that by virtue of it's scale will easily please a lot of people, no matter which “Era” of Mortiis originally hooked you. The dark ambient style pieces hark back to the tail end of Era I, while the more electronic orientated contributions are reminiscent of Era II, and so on. It's a lot of material to absorb but it is a rare occasion where the quality and quantity on offer actually matches up.   

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