Review by Daniel for Mortal Sin - Every Dog Has It's Day (1991)

Sydney thrash metallers Mortal Sin hold a very strong place in my heart, despite never really quite living up to their reputation in my opinion. You see, they were the first local extreme metal band to cross my path when I first became obsessed with the scene in the late 1980's & they gave me the belief that I should try my hand at creating a band of my own. My attention was initially grabbed by their highly regarded "Mayhemic Destruction" debut album which led to me moving onto their 1989 sophomore record "Face of Despair". If I'm being completely honest though, neither of those full-lengths has ever left me convinced that Mortal Sin are worthy of being placed in the top tier of the global thrash heavyweights. In fact, I can't say that I'd even lump them in with the second tier either. To my ears, they're both serviceable & mildly entertaining but rarely get my blood pumping & it's for that reason that I've awarded both a middling 3.5-star rating here at the Academy. Their live shows where another story though & I had an absolute ball in many a Mortal Sin mosh pit over the years. However, I digress because the point I was trying to make is that Mortal Sin were well & truly on my radar when their third full-length "Every Dog Has It's Day" hit the shelves in 1991 which even led to me purchasing the "Every Dog Has It's Day" cassingle in the leadup to the album release. Now prepare yourselves for a hot take because you're about the receive one.

The story behind "Every Dog Has It's Day" (otherwise known as "Rebellious Youth" if you've picked up the Virgin Records release) is that a fair amount of internal turmoil occurred within Mortal Sin's ranks following the release of "Face of Despair" which eventually resulted in the band breaking up altogether. Bassist Andy Eftichiou wasn't satisfied to simply let old dogs lie though, going behind the backs of the other band members to create a completely new version of Mortal Sin. Once the other band members found out about it, they took legal action & it got really messy. The new lineup didn't hang around too long but it did last long enough to record this third full-length which would be the first to be released while I was keeping tabs on the band. Sadly, the majority of the global metal scene gave "Every Dog Has It's Day" a pretty harsh panning at the time & that hasn't improved since but I have to admit that I don't remember the album that way at all & I've recently wondered whether that's due to nostalgia or whether Mortal Sin's diehard fanbase had simply not given the record a chance. This week I decided to find out as it's been decades since I last heard the record in full.

The lineup that recorded "Every Dog Has It's Day" isn't exactly star-studded with a number of relatively unknown new members filling key rolls. In fact, guitarist Dave DeFrancesco was the only one that had anything of significance on their resume, having appeared on the pretty decent "Into Reality" demo tape from local speed/heavy metal outfit Enticer a couple of years earlier. The band perform their roles admirably nonetheless & show themselves to have some pretty reasonable chops in the process. The major talking point though is generally the vocal ability of new front man Steve Sly whose delivery is noticeably more melodic & clean than the James Hetfield-ish voice of Mat Maurer on the two 1980's records. A lot of people claim that Sly ruins "Every Dog Has It's Day" but I simply can't prescribe to that line of thinking as he can certainly sing & delivers a performance that isn't all that uncommon for thrash metal in my opinion. Sure, you may prefer Maurer over Sly but, if you treat the album on its own merits, I think you'll find that there's not anything technically wrong with Sly's voice. The other main talking point is the theory that the new version of Mortal Sin had watered down the intensity of the 1980's lineup with a more accessible & commercialized sound. Once again though, I never really thought of Mortal Sin as being anything all that extreme & the material we receive here is some more than serviceable mid-tempo thrash metal that wouldn't sound all that out of place on a Testament or Xentrix record from the time. The average tempos are a touch slower than previous efforts but so fucking what really. The misguided ballad "Wasted Days" is the exemption to the rule though & is the clear weak point of the album.

But is the songwriting as boring as it's made out to be then? Well, in a word "no", it's simply not. There are plenty of great riffs included with the rhythm section doing a great job at maximizing their weight. Perhaps the Studio 301/Powerhouse production isn't as warm & heavy as a record like "Mayhemic Destruction" but it's certainly not bad. I'm quite a fan of the lead guitar work which is more than capable & it works nicely to provide support for the hooks which, contrary to popular opinion, are memorable enough for me to remember most of this material several decades later. Opener "Inside Out" is a beauty & is my favourite cut on the record while being ably supported by "Side Effect" & single B-side "See No Evil". I honestly don't see the quality being all that different from that of "Mayhemic Destriction" or "Face of Despair" if I'm being perfectly honest & are even going to go so far as to say that I marginally prefer "Every Dog Has It's Day" to "Face of Despair" these days. So look, I'm not asking that you all take my word for it & immediately realign your opinions on this album to be in line with my own but I am going to suggest that you ignore the general perception that's voiced online when going into the record as you might be surprised by the outcome.

For fans of Metallica, Xentrix & Testament.