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BACK
 MORTICIAN
– Call in the Coroner
By Aaron McKay
I’ve heard it said that the simplest organisms always survive.
If a holocaust ever descended, nuclear or otherwise, Mortician would
be left standing in full support of all that is base, righteous,
and incorruptible in metal music. With an iron vengeance at their
core, this band has positioned itself at the epicentre of barbarity.
With that as a starting point, Mortician finds little use in branching
out beyond what they deem as "cruel grinding death."
You either love ’em or you don’t -- just the way they
like it.
One nondescript Friday evening, I arranged to speak with one of
the two core members of Mortician in the hopes of getting the answers
to some questions that have been stewing in the back of my mind
for some time.
A courteous Roger Beaujard answered the phone and we began.
"Ya love us or ya hate us," the drum programmer responds
to my question about why two polarized schools of thought about
Mortician exist. He continues, "I think it is ’cause of
the drum machine -- a lot of people are anti-drum machine. Also,
there is the gore-metal aspect and the simplicity of it, too. We
are there to fill the gap for the brutal, to-the-point gore metal.
If ya wanna listen to something technical, go listen to something
technical then.
"There is beauty in simplicity," Beaujard adds.
Roger is responsible for playing everything live that he programs
for the band in the studio. You see where I am going here. Doesn’t
that absolutely destroy him in a concert setting? I’m surprised
he doesn’t pass out.
"Me too," Beaujard laughs. "It’s been hard,
but I have my other project, Malignancy, so I am in good drumming
shape. It wasn’t that bad to go right to Mortician. It was
just a helluva lot more blasting."
Of course there have been Mortician/Malignancy tours in the past.
How about playing twice a night at that breakneck speed?
"That tour we did with Goatwhore was the test," Roger
agrees. "That really got me blasting fast, and I have gotten
good."
There is a just-completed split release with Malignancy that is
coming out, and even more new Malignancy material being prepared
to be shopped around for a label in the fall. There is also Mortician’s
Final Bloodbath Session (with live drums) due out this fall on Primitive
Recordings (Beaujard’s own label), right?
"Yeah, we are still doing that," the drummer confesses.
"Actually, we’ll do some more of that this weekend. We’ve
got about four or five songs, music only, completely done."
Is that normally how it is done with the band?
"Usually we do all the music first then have Will [Rahmer]
come up and do the vocals. It is going pretty good. It is just [that]
we’ve had a bunch of tours and it’s hard to break the
drums down, get them outta here, play the show, then come back and
set ’em up for recording."
The new one, Domain of Death -- is that a little bit of progression
I hear?
Roger cuts in, "When we get together and we record, it is such
an oiled machine. We know what we are doing. We do all our own recording
and we always have, so it is so relaxed. It really flows; no worries
about sound now ’cause it is all PC-based. It is like one-two-three."
A relaxed atmosphere must be very important to the band.
"I make sure they have fun," he says. "I think that
is the most important thing in the studio, which is why we don
’t
go to the big studios. It is so important to be relaxed and have
a good time. That’s gonna show, and that’s the fuckin’
point anyway."
The album cover seems to be a bit of a departure for Wes Benscoter,
artist for the likes of Regurgitate, Deceased, Exit-13, and Amorphis.
Were you expecting this final product from him?
"Nope," Roger jokes instantly. "It was partially
what we wanted. We wanted a forgotten torture chamber, but Wes being
who he is, he pretty much took the idea and ran with it. I sent
him a detailed description of what we wanted and he took some artistic
license and did what he wanted.
"I dig it. I didn’t like it at first -- I didn’t
hate it, but it wasn’t what I wanted, so I was a little disappointed,"
clarifies Roger. "As I got to know it and it became what we
were going to use, it really grew on me. I really do like it a lot.
What I really dig is the colours, because they are so different
from anything we’ve ever done. It is really cool."
In conclusion, I am compelled to ask for Mortician’s secret
to longevity.
Comes the resounding reply, "We just sit there and spew, and
that is part of the genius behind it. We are that kind of band where
it shouldn’t be dwelled over. We are just one of those bands
that spit out brutality and have it thrown on a CD."
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