Customer Reviews

Blackened Images

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4 star:		(2)
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WOW!!! What an album!!! Mortuary from Mexico were kind of like a blend of Massacra, Dead Head, Necrodeath, Ripping Corpse, Hydra Vein, and Amon(early-Deicide). A blistering album which perfectly blends late-80's speed metal with early death metal. Find this album while it is still available, because if you're an extreme metal fan and pass this one up, you will be eternally damned by the metal gods!!!! Long live Mexican thrash!!!

Killing, frenetic and maniac death metal band from Mexico that makes an aggresive but intelligent form of metal.
When you listen to the apocalyptic Abyss Angel you relly feel the hell out of it, Satan coming up to earth to take your body and soul ¡¡¡¡
The energy and power from this band is really something different to the rest of mexican death metal bands, you just listen to Sacrilegious, Asphyxiation, Blood Storm and all the rest of the songs, they really show a freneticism and speed, an effectiveness never showed in any other mexican band.
If you ask me, I'd really reccomend this album, if you wanna know what a mexican death metal band can do, this is your chance ¡¡¡¡

In 1992, a fledgling new underground label out of Massachusetts (later of Indianapolis, Indiana), with the cooperation of Turbo U.S.A., gave a young Mexican band named Mortuary a chance to be heard, when they released the band's debut "Blackened Images." Judging by the thank list in the liner notes, the Mexican death metal underground was thriving in the early '90s and Mortuary were a good choice for the label to sign.

"Blackened Images" is actually more deathrash than straight death metal. The band most recall the early work of Sepultura, and this is a good thing, as the band took the road less traveled for 1992 (most bands were more apt to mimic Cannibal Corpse during this time). One of the band members sports a Terrorizer shirt in the band photo to the CD and they seem to be another possible influence, as the build-up to opener "Abyss Angel" recalls them somewhat. But for the most part, this material is very energetic and interesting deathrash that went against the grain of what everyone else was doing at the time.

I really like the cover art of vocalist/bassist Joel Alanis. It somewhat recalls that of Morbid Angel's "Altars of Madness," but the purple color of the cover and layout of the CD is very cool and pleasing to the eye.

This was recorded at a small studio in Monterrey, Mexico and I must say that the band (who also in part produced the album) achieved a really good sound. All instruments are always discernible and along with the energy of the material itself, it really packs a wallop.

The J.L. America releases are all long out of print and hard to come by and "Blackened Images" is no exception. Having only had the cassette years ago, I was lucky enough to find a mint copy of the CD here on Amazon recently. I don't regret my purchase and neither will you. Strongly recommended to metal fans who appreciate equal parts death and thrash.

Mortuary was my introduction to Death Metal. Oh did I hate it. It was back 93' I had been heavily into hard rock and metal for about 2 years. I was really into bands such as AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Metallica. I am still a huge fan of the first two. Metallica I am struggling with. But that's another story.

I had never heard of death metal before. I was in a Sam Goodie record store and I was looking through their bargain bin. I happened upon a CD with a purple cover with a bunch of weird abstract faces and eyes on it. Plus the band's logo was also pretty cool. That band's name was Mortuary. I bought the album "Blackened Images" for $5.99. I rushed home and popped it in my small boom box. The first track "Abyss Angel" starts and I was thinking not bad, a bit bland but not too bad. Then the vocals began. I then stated "uhhh what the heck is this junk" not quite in those words, but you get the point. I was able to make it through the first 4 tracks and I took it out of my CD player and didn't touch it again for another year.

I year later I finally knew what death metal was. I learned this from older kids who were into it. One of them gave me a cassette of Obituary's "Cause of Death" I immediately loved it. After I was done listening to Obituary's album I remembered that band with a similar name called Mortuary. I then dug through my junk CDs and found "Blackened Images". Listening to it again I enjoyed it a lot more. Time went on and I later discovered more bands such as Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Death, and Deicide, to name a few. I never liked Mortuary as much as those other bands, but I always wondered why they never got their shot.

After listening to the album again today. I was thinking it was a shame Mortuary really never got their big shot in the Death Metal scene. In my opinion "Blackened Images" showed some real promise. It has crunching guitar riffs and some really decent death vocals. The drums and bass are bit weak but not too bad. Granted I can hear a lot of Slayer, Morbid Angel, and such in Mortuary's music but it's pretty darn good. The record itself is a bit raw. It's more or less a demo and it's not much in the production department, but never the less it still is done well despite the fact of the poor production. If Mortuary would have landed a bit of a better deal with labels such as Earache, Metal Blade, or Roadrunner they might have had a better shot to get their music out there. Plus if a producer such as Scott Burns would have had a opportunity to produce a record for them we might have heard much more from these lads from Mexico. Anyway if you are into death metal and come across Mortuary's "Blackened Images" do yourself a favor and pick up this lost treasure.