I first came across Brian Hobbie when “The Cleansing” by CATASTROPHIC was released. The highlights of the press release of that album was of course Trevor Peres and Keith DeVito of OBITUARY and PYREXIA and INTERNAL BLEEDING fame, with Hobbie as a side note. “The Cleansing” was a solid NYDM infused OBITUARY styled Death Metal album. CATASTROPHIC released a second album, which I don’t think I ever laid ears on. Luckily Hobbie didn’t put the bass down, and nowadays he roams in MORTIFEROTH. A band that hails from New York and has been around since 2015 releasing a good bunch of demos and EPs. The newest EP has been caught by French Nihilistic Holocaust, that have released “… To The Abyss” on tape. We are of course speaking Death Metal, Death Metal delivered with really smooth and catchy guitar riffs, solid mid paced rhythm patterns and a guttural growl latching on the groovy rhythms. The music is a solid mix of NY grooviness and the seamless flow of riffs that especially OBITUARY masters. Together with a state of ambience that IMMOLATION masters, just in a much lighter and nowhere as evil version on this EP. Production wise the EP lacks a bit of power and punch, I reckon the music with a powerful production would kick some serious ass. We have the riffs, the solos and the smashing rhythms. Songwriting wise the tunes are solid. The growl lacks some conviction to make the songs stand out, a more direct and powerful growl with some serious bottom would do wonders for the songs. The double growls on ‘Decay’ and ‘Retaliation Of The Ancient Sorcerers’ work really well, more of that spread around the tunes, please. And what a guitar solo on that last track, damn good stuff! That being written, it’s still a solid release with some good ideas and good execution. I think we will hear a lot more of MORTIFEROTH the coming years, the guys have some good things going on. More information here in after: www.facebook.com/mortiferoth, www.facebook.com/nihilisticzinedistro