Forgotten Gems-Post Mortem

New Renaissance
1986

In the mid-to late 1980's I was completely into thrash. Every band with leather jackets, high top white Nikes, stringy hair and some fast riffs probably had my attention at least for a little while. So if I bought an album thinking the band was going to be thrash and they weren't then the album probably tossed to the back of the stack. Such was the case with Post Mortem. They were on New Renaissance records. Which for anyone who remembers this meant bad production, the bands went nowhere if they stayed on this label and most of the time thrash. I bought 1986's Coroner's Office without having heard anything off of it although I had read a brief but but glowing review of it. I figured they would be thrash because one of the band members was wearing a Slayer. Fantastic logic I know, but in my defense was only 16. Well, I listened to the album and there were some fast songs, but not all thrash and those vocals, they were not straight thrash metal vocals. Plus there were some long very slow tracks. Even worse there were short joke type fillers and a slight jazz interlude? What the heck? I was ripped off, mislead and duped by a band pretending to look like a thrash band! That was the thought on this album for a long time. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I gave it another shot and at last it clicked. The band's influences are Slayer, Saint Vitus, Black Flag and Black Sabbath and they all show up on this album. The production is still poor, but that doesn't hold back how brilliant this album yes. Yes, I freely admit that I misjudged this album all those years ago. The faster songs here are a cross between metal and punk and they pull in the heaviness of both, but live for the raw edges of both as well. The slower songs are similar to what Saint Vitus were doing at the time only with even more droning moments, but they are heavy and thick. The band throw several different styles in and sound totally comfortable every step of the way. They could have been a little tighter in spots, but that would come later on. I was wrong on this one and I even think their sound here showed some ideas of early death metal so in some respects they were ahead of their time. If you never heard it then hunt it down and check it out.




New Renaissance
1987

Now the second part of this story was Post Mortem's 1987 four track EP The missing link. Despite being disappointed by Coroner's Office a year before I still believed there was a thrash band in these guys. By 1987 I had gotten into more punk rock bands and was slightly more open to that sound although thrash was still number one in my limited spectrum of music. This album has two fast songs that both lean more towards punk than thrash and two really slow songs. The production was still crap, but for whatever reason I enjoyed this album right away despite it not being what I was hoping for. The two faster songs are mean and raw with lots of bite. While the two slower songs crawl along like a huge dinosaur slowing crushing the ground on it's journey. I still like this EP even better today as well. Even though Coroner's Office appeals to me now I still think that The Missing Link heard the band becoming mush tighter and far more confident. Despite only four tracks it's still the superior album out of the two.

There was a scheduled re-issue of these two albums on one CD from New Renaissance a few years ago, but it never came about. However you can still find them on vinyl on eBay and various places. Plus there was a CD release if Coroners Office back in the 90's, but I heard the quality wasn't the best. You can also find free downloads of both online.

My 2008 interview.
http://metalmark.blogspot.com/2008/08/interview-with-post-mortem.html