Greetings Mat! How are you man? Would you tell us few words about
you? What do you do nowadays?
At the moment I am doing many things - I have a job working in the Entertainment industry and also writing songs for the next Mortal Sin album.
Because Mortal Sin is comparatively unknown in Hungary, I would
interrogate you about the band, in all right?
We once did an interview in 1987 for a magazine called Hungarica Metallica!!
I still have the magazine in my band room. The band was formed in 1985 and
split up in 1990, the reformed in 1996 for two more years, then Wayne &
myself decided to call it quits until we could find the right musicians for
the band.
In 2000 we began a new quest to find two of the best guitarists we
could find. It took us nearly three years and we now have Mick Sultana and
Joe Buttigieg who both played in the thrash band "Addictive" who recorded
two albums.
The group was established by you and drummer Wayne Campbell. Your
meeting was in turn interesting. Do you remember about it? How did join the
band the other members? Did you know each other?
Yeah, we met on a train during a huge thunderstorm and a bolt of lightning
stopped the train! We spoke about being in bands and decided we both liked
the same style of music, so we said we would meet up at the rehearsal studio
of Wayne's band Wizzard.
Here I met the band and tried out to be singer, but
Wayne, myself and guitarist Keith decided we could do something heavier and
went on to form our own band "Mortal Sin". We auditioned for another
guitarist and a bass player and the rest they say is history!
Which bands have had an effect on you? I ask, because at the time
you were compared to Metallica. I think you like/you liked the "Master of
puppets" album.
Yes Metallica have definitely had an effect on us all, but we were also influenced by Slayer, Kreator, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and in general lots of music that came before us. You can listen to all the early Metallica albums and still enjoy them very much, that's why Metallica are the best!!
Was the thrash metal popular in Australia? How was the Australian
scene at the time?
When we started in 1985 there was no thrash scene. The metal scene was mostly cock rock bands or hard rock - Mortal Sin and Slaughterlord were the only thrash bands or the bands who started the thrash genre in Australia.
Were you in contact with the European bands or scene? Did you have
European friends? Did you take part in the underground tapetrading?
In the early days we did not have the internet to write to people - we had
to send letters and wait..and wait..and wait.. Sometimes you were not sure
you would even get a reply or you thought your tapes would not arrive to
their destination!
We used to trade tapes a lot and we used to buy t-shirts
from the addresses off the back of the albums. It was very hard in 1985-86,
but we managed to break through and get some people interested in us from
overseas. Australia is so far away from everywhere else!!!!
In Australia was another cool thrash metal act Slaughter Lord, but
they were more brutal, faster and heavier than you. Were you friends? Did
you play often together? Did you like Slaughter Lord?
Yes, the boys from Slaughterlord used to live in the same apartment block
one floor above me. We were all friends and in fact when we needed a new
guitarist after sacking Keith Krstin, Mick Burke from Slaughterlord joined
the band.
And when we sacked Wayne Campbell in 1990, we also got
Slaughterlord drummer Steve Hughes.
Slaughter Lord was a cult band, they have recorded only demos, but
album not. Why didn't they get at a contract with an label? Why and when did
Slaughter Lord split up?
I have no idea why they did not get a deal, but they have since produced their first release on CD. I can't remember when the band split up - maybe it was in 1987 when Mick Burke joined Mortal Sin but I'm really not sure.
Back to Mortal Sin. What did mean your name? To what did your name
refer?
In the mid 80's every band was looking to try and get the heaviest name! We thought Mortal Sin was the heaviest name we could think of and we liked the name so it stuck. The logo is very good too.
By the British Kerrang! magazine you were tabbed as a next big thing.
By what did you obtain this acknowledgement/honour? Were you popular in
Australia?
I guess the British press were looking for a band that was going to be the
next Metallica and since I sounded a lot like James Hetfield, maybe that's
why they said that, I don't know.
Yes we were popular in Australia but we
were more popular in Germany for some reason. Many people including Kerrang
thought the Mayhemic Destruction album was very good.
How many demos did you record? In what kind of reception were reception
your demos? Which songs were on the demos?
Mayhemic Destruction was meant to be our first demo, so we didn't really record any demos. We just decided to record the demo as an album and send it to all the record companies and that's why we ended up getting a record deal, because in those days not many bands recorded their own albums with their own money.
Your debut was "Mayhemic destruction" (1987). Please, tell us about the
songs and lyrics! I mean, this album isn't well-known, but very good songs
are on it.
The album is actually very well known in many parts - the songs were written
mostly in late 1985 and early 1986. Keith, Paul and Myself were the major
writers and Wayne wrote some of the lyrics.
Some of the lyrics were fairly
satanic but we didn't really believe in the satanism thing we just thought
it was fun to be rebellious.
What kind of results did you get on the album in Europe and in the
States? How many songs are originally on the record? I have read on an
website, the album consist of 12 songs, but on my tape are only 8.
The album went really well in Europe, but it didn't get released in America - only on import. The album only consists of 8 songs - The Curse, Women in Leather, Lebanon, Liar on side "Heavy" and Blood Death Hatred, Mortal Slaughter, Into the Fire and Mayhemic Destruction on side "Death". Some Italian record label released the original Mayhemic Destruction with a split CD with another band "Lethal" but this is not official.
"Mayhemic destruction" was released by Independent. Was it hard to get
at a contract from Australia to a label? In your opinion, was the album
successful?
It was originally released on our own label - Mega Metal Productions. We produced and paid for the record out of our own money, so we didn't have to sign to a local label. But when we signed to Phonogram, the Australian label Polygram also signed us.
Your second release was "Face of despair" (1989), which was released by
Polydor. How did you get to Polydor? Did want other labels also to engage
you? Was Polydor better than Independent?
Polydor (Phonogram Records UK) signed us after hearing Mayhemic Destruction.
There were a couple of other labels that were interested in Mortal Sin, but
we decided to go with the English company.
In hindsight we probably would
have been better off to sign with a smaller record label who could
concentrate more on the band for touring etc.
On "Face of despair" can be listened to the influence/effect of
Metallica too. Are differences and similarities between "Mayhemic
destruction" and "Face of despair"?
Face of Despair was more technical and more progressive. The song structures
were more complex and the songs were a little more catchy. Some people said
Mayhemic Destruction was a better album, but the band has always felt that
Face of Despair was better.
Even now we listen to the songs of Face of
Despair and we see how difficult they were to teach our new guitarists. The
production was always going to be better on Face of Despaur because we
really only spent about 40 hrs recording Mayhemic Destruction, but three
weeks recording Face of despair.
On the second record played on guitar Mick Burke instead of Keith
Krstin. What happened with Keith?
Keith was sacked from the band because he kept fucking up the songs when we played live shows and made it embarrassing for us. Mick learnt all the songs in three weeks and began playing about mid 1987.
After the releasing of "Face of despair" you went on Europe tour. Tell
me please about your gigs in Europe! Where and with which bands did you play
together?
We first went to USA to do promotions for one week in January 1990 and then
flew to England for some shows with the nighty Testament. Those guys rocked
big time! We played one show at The Hammersmith Odeon and then went to
Holland and Germany.
A few days after the last show with Testament we began
a tour with Faith No More and did shows all around England, Scotland and
Wales. After that we went back to America and played about six shows.
One
show in New York we played with Biohazard and when we played in San
Fransisco James Hetfield and Jason Newstead from Metallica came to watch us
play.
The next release of Mortal Sin was "Rebellious youth" (1991). On this
album played nobody from the original line up except Andy Eftichiou. Why did
you leave the band? What's your opinion about this release? Did change the
style of the band?
I left the band in 1990 when we came home from overseas because of the way
myself and my wife were treated by the drummer Steve Hughes and also because
when we came back to Australia I felt the band should have played some
really big shows, but the rest of the band wanted to play small hotels
again, so I decided to leave.
I haven't ever listened to the album so I
cannot make an opinion of it, but I saw them live and I definitely did not
like the singer - I thought he did not have a very powerful voice and I
thought our earlier songs definitely needed a powerful voice. I think that
band was more power metal than thrash metal.
A long silence have come in the career of Mortal Sin. What did you do
during that long time? Did you split up?
Yes, we did split up until 1996 when Wayne, Myself and Andy reformed the band. Paul played a couple of shows with us but he lived to far away to be able to keep playing so we got two other guitarists Troy Scerri and Anthony Hoffman.
When did you decide to reform Mortal Sin?
1996 was when we first decided to reform the band.
The fourth album of you was "Revolution of the mind" (1997). On this
album played you, Andy, Wayne Campbell and two new guitarists Troy Scerri
and Anthony Hoffman.
How did they join the band? Why didn't take part the
original guitarists in the reunion? Can we speak about a reunion? Why did
change the logo?
Anthony was the guitarist in Waynes other band "Grungeon", so he was a good
friend of Wayne and a good guitarist and said he would be the guitarist if
we wanted him. Troy was also in a band with Wayne from 1990 "White Trash"
and he also was a very good guitarist.
Paul was back in the band but only
for two shows because he lived nearly 1000 km away from the rest of us. Other
guitarist Mick was not around anywhere so that's why he did not play in the
band when we reformed.
We changed the logo because someone drew a new one
and we liked it, but we now realise that the old one is the best one by far!
Is this an official release or a sampler, a collection? Did you write
some new stuff at the time?
Revolution of the Mind was just a small release for our local fans. We decided we could not play some shows if we did not have any product out and we only had two new songs, so we recorded the two new songs and added some old songs re=recorded and some songs that did not make it onto any of the earlier records. Again we released the record on our own label Mega Metal Productions.
Did you split up again after the releasing of "Revolution of the mind"?
Can you tell us informations about the former Mortal Sin members?
We kind of split up but we always new we would do something again when we
could find the right guitarists who could write big songs. In 1997 the
Olympics were coming to Australia for 2000 and I began writing a magazine
for my own business about collectables and also wrote two books for the
Olympics about Olympic pins!!
When the Olympics were over we decided to look
for some guitarists. Paul Carwana is living in Queensland (1000 km away) and
Mick Burke gave up guitar after an electricution accident that damaged his
neck and nerves.
What kind of bands do you listen to nowadays? What do you do in your
free-time? Tell us please about the Australian scene of nowadays!
My most favourite band is Dream Theater, then Metallica, then Queen, then Yes and Journey. I like to listen to progressive rock and some old thrash like Testament, Death Angel, Exodus and Mordred.
In your opinion, did Metallica sell out the thrash metal? With the
"Black album" they became very popular. What do you think about the "Black
album" and about the career of Metallica, after the "Black album"? Do you
like still Metallica?
Yes I still love Metallica - I met up with Kirk and James when they recently
came to Australia. They are still the same guys they were in 1989 when they
came to Australia then.
I don't think they sold out because when you are
around for so long you have to keep experimenting with your music and you
write what you like and hope that your fans will like it too. If the fans
want you to play the same music forever everyone would sound like Status Quo
and AC/DC. The Black album was a brilliant career move.
Every band wants and
needs to make money to survive and Metallica did what they needed to do to
sustain their longevity. They will probably be around for many more years
still and they will continue to get more new fans.
I think, thrash metal is and was always underground, the part of the
underground scene. What's your opinion about it?
I think thrash is more mainstream now. If anything Black and Death metal are
the underground now what thrash was in the 90's.
Thrash now has become more
popular because of Metallica and Anthrax and Slayer, but Death and Black
metal will never become radio friendly like thrash so it will probably stay
underground (unfortunately).
What does it mean for you thrash metal? Is a thrash movement nowadays?
What do you say to that the classic band of the '80-s (for example Exodus,
Nasty Savage, Nuclear Assault, Assassin, Death Angel) are back again?
I think the thrash is back because the Nu-metal movement came in and got all
the rock fans into metal but they then found harder and heavier and faster
metal which they prefer to the nu metal.
All the old thrash fans found out
that all new metal was never as good as the old metal!!!!!!!
The compulsory question: will Mortal Sin reform? Will you release a
brandnew album? Do you think often about the old days?
Mortal Sin are currently writing new songs for another album called "Far
from Extinction" which we hope to record at the end of this year.
We are
also releasing a DVD of a show we played in March in Australia and it should
be released in July.
Do I ever think of the old days?? You can never forget
the old days especially when you play shows with bands like Metallica and
Testament!
Mat, thank you for your patience and your answers. Please close the
interview!
A special thanks to all our fans in Hungary. When we next come over to play in Europe please someone tell us to play in Hungary!! Also look out for our new album and our new DVD.
Contact: www.bnrmetal.com/groups/mosi.htm
by David Laszlo