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MORTAL FEAR
Blood, Sweat And Beer EP

Self-released (2024)
Rating: 6/10

It seems rather odd to hear a Norwegian band trying to sound like a thrashy US hardcore outfit, but that is the case here with Mortal Fear. One of several acts to use the moniker, this particular group formed in 2020 and this is the band’s debut EP.

Blood, Sweat And Beer boasts decent cover art and serves up four short tracks, all of which are constructed in typical crossover fashion with the speedy skatecore rhythms and streetwise vocal rants.

Opening tune ‘Mortal Fear’ offers plenty of zip and is littered with gang chants yet rages like any other release from the golden era of urban hardcore. ‘I Am The End’ is more of a straight up thrasher and sounds like a cross between Slayer and Municipal Waste, very much skittish thrashcore but with a slick hook that draws you in from the off.

I’m thankful the EP runs for just 12 minutes, meaning this familiar crossover doesn’t take up too much of your time. ‘The Reaper’s Call’ is the fastest track here, rapid in its percussion and extra hasty with the axe flurries. It’s the sort of song which conjures up images of beer soaked mosh pits, bloody skateboarding wounds, backwards turned caps and street graffiti. Meanwhile, the closing title track mixes some good mid-tempo bashing with faster blasts of old school thrash.

This is all a bit generic and if you’ve been to one frat party you’ve been to them all, except this is Norway! Rowdy while it lasts but the joke wears off quickly.

Neil Arnold

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