1993… Black Metal is established in Scandinavia and slowly but steadily conquers the rest of the worldwide underground scene. Death Metal is at the point considered “trendy” (ironic considering that some of the greatest Death Metal albums were released at that time) by most underground die-hards of the time. I guess that was mainly due to the commercial exposure of bands such as DEICIDE, OBITUARY, CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, ENTOMBED and MORBID ANGEL to name a few – bands that managed to leave their unmistaken mark even in those days. The “commercialization” (or whatever) of Death Metal made most underground people turn their heads to the Black Metal camp which at the time offered an alternative to the extremity Death Metal lacked (add a salt of murder, arson and makeup as well). But hopefully some “stubborn underdogs” refused to let the good old Death Metal spirit go away. One of the most underrated of them is none other than Finnish Death Metal band MORDICUS. After releasing two demos and a promo tape (“Abominations Of The Earth”, “Grown Under Shade Of Sorrow”, “Promo 92”) and a 7 inch (“Three Way Dissection” – on Seraphic Decay), MORDICUS released their one and only full-length album “Dances From Left” on the French cult (by now) label Thrash Records in a limited amount of around 1500 copies only. The album was officially buried and forgotten for ages but it was only a couple of years ago (when all the sudden old school Death Metal became of “public interest” again) that people started to re-discover all those “dust-covered” obscure underground gems. Since capitalism reigns supreme the contemporary Metal scene (the underground included) all of the sudden people started to hunt like crazy those few available copies that one can obtain by paying a fortune on ebay. Luckily Spanish underground label Temple Of Darkness made it available once again on CD and LP format (the latter for the first time) for those of us who are desperate enough not to hold an original Thrash Records copy of the album. And what a great album “Dances From Left” is! To begin with, the first thing that strikes one’s attention is the album’s killer, solid Sunlight-like production that paves like a bulldozer the listener’s ears. Not to mention the incredible technical and song-structuring capabilities of the band: killer sharp melodic guitar-lines (still heavy and crushing as fuck), excellent drums / rhythm section and some great vocals that manage to sound brutal and diverse at the same time. MORDICUS managed with great ease to balance both melody and brutality at the very same time crafting a sound of their own with their one and only album, well that’s an achievement! In my opinion this is a real gem (with all the meaning of the word) that deserves a place to every serious (and open-minded enough) Death Metal collection. Temple Of Darkness did a good work offering as a bonus some cool demo tracks (with good sound quality) and their great “Three Way Dissection” 7”. Can’t wait to check out the vinyl! www.templeofdarknessrecords.com

“A pure old school Death Metal masterpiece” is printed on the flyer of their label Temple Of Darkness Records who decided to re-release this jewel which was released back in 1993 by the French label Thrash Records. For those who don’t know, Thrash Records did some great work in the past with releasing such classics as the debut records from Convulse (“World Without God” – if anyone should consider selling it, please contact me – Frank), Sentenced (“Shadows Of The Past”) or Carbonized (“For The Security”) and a couple of great seven inches of Revenant, Fatal, Afflicted or Vital Remains among others. And one of their last releases was this great piece of music called “Dances From Left” from the Finnish Deathers MORDICUS. I’m not really sure but I heard that this release was limited to 1500 copies back then which means that all of you out there who own the original version of this recording have a true collector’s item at home. Now almost 14 years later the Spanish Temple Of Darkness Records are about to re-release this album including a couple of bonus tracks from their 7″EP “Three Way Dissection” plus extra tracks from their demos. Again it feels great to philosophise about the great old days and how great everything was in the beginning of the 90s, but I don’t want to claim that everything was great back then, I mean, no actually not, everyone complained the same like nowadays, but releases like this could prove me wrong. With this release MORDICUS showed that the Finnish scene had (and for sure still have) a lot to offer. It feels kinda hard to describe them for those who don’t know this band yet, but I’d say if you imagine a bastard out of the Carcass CDs “Necroticism” and “Heartwork” you should be pretty close. But who cares anyway? Trust me when I say that this is a fantastic release with great songs such as ‘I Bleed To See’, ‘Unholy Wrath’ or the godly ‘A Thorn In Holy Flesh’ to name just three which you don’t find on many other records nowadays. The running time of the CD doesn’t include the bonus tracks so expect a helluva value for money. Make sure to check out www.myspace.com/mordicusband if you still don’t believe my words and listen to some song-samples there. Move to www.templeofdarknessrecords.com or www.myspace.com/temple_of_darkness for ordering details as I’m not sure if this is again a limited edition which you could miss a second time. You would regret it…