Album Review

Mortad - The Myth of PurityMortad – The Myth of Purity

Mortad are a London based metal group founded in 2010 by Iranian vocalist Somi Arian. “The Myth of Purity” is their first full length studio album released for free with Metal Hammer magazine, their album cover suggests I’m in for an hour or so of some female fronted metal.

The first thing I notice is that the vocals are ridiculously similar to those of Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy) and the music isn’t far off from being classed as similar, its surreal to be honest when I first stuck it on I thought my iTunes library had screwed up and actually started playing Arch Enemy instead. The real differences are more of just a modern twist; breakdowns, crunchier tone, higher pitched squeals and the sinister approach to writing as opposed to the straight up heavy way of work.

“The Mirage” really intrigued me, especially its intro. The vocals are spine chilling before the kick in, makes me shiver sometimes. The rest of the track still sounds like Arch Enemy but has its defining moments that pull it apart from the comparison mostly to do with the guitar techniques from the modern metal scene like every other song, unlike the rest thought this is much more ominous.”I’m Not Interested in Being Interesting” is another different approach which I think pays off in dragging their name away from the similarity comparison but I don’t think I particularly like the way they’ve written it, a bit slower in pace and the vocals are a bit hard to digest.

I really like the album, the band have captured that really ominous atmosphere whilst drifting between heavy and gentle musical transitions with each song. I just feel the similarity to Arch Enemy is a bit much and they need to brand out a bit to really be taken seriously, if they focus on what really makes their sound really distinctive and unique then they can take this through global success.

3/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Somi Arian
Jonathan Hughes
Joseph Perumal
Szymek Lawik
 Track Listing
1. All That’s Born Must Be Destroyed
2. Waste of My Rage
3. The Heights
4. Mirage
5. Feels like Suffocations
6. The Myth of Purity
7. I’m Not Interested in Being Interesting
8. By Default
9. The Voice
10. That which is Humane
 Band Related Links
Mortad Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?