In the early 90s, Sydneys Mortality was a four piece death machine breathing life into a flaccid scene with monstrous grooves and crushing riffs.Mortality originated around the core of vocalist Darren Maloney, bass player Luke Ford and guitarist Darren Jenkins in the early 1990s as a Pantera-styled five piece unit until the line-up settled down as a quartet with Rick Fuda on drums. A solid reputation on the local Sydney metal scene, a national tour and a support with Sepultura raised Mortality's profile Australia-wide and turned their string of demos into best-sellers. The band got heavier and heavier, evolving into a groove-laden death metal monster, with influences from Fear Factory and Meshuggah creeping into the Mortality sound.In 1994, upheaval occurred when Fuda and Jenkins were replaced. Rick Fudas spot was taken by Steve Pell, formerly of Kilswitch, and Craig Figl took over from Jenkins. The next year Mortality supported Belgian thrashers Channel Zero, but missed out on opening for Fear Factory in mid-96 when the tour was infamously cancelled. Nonetheless, Mortality maintained their status as one of the top-drawing metal acts in Sydney.Almost a year after it was first announced and several months late due to the usual unexpected issues of the independent metal scene, Mortalitys debut album Structure was finally released in March 1997. With a potent mixture of brutality and groove, Structure was the ultimate statement of Mortalitys power. Only six months later however, the band split and one of the major players in the resuscitation of the Sydney metal scene was gone....Yet the bands legacy continued. Darren Maloney joined his former bandmate Darren Jenkins in Cryogenic, while the rest of Mortality regrouped as a rap-metal act called Porn Caddy. With Maloney out front, Cryogenic would support Strapping Young Lad, Entombed and Cradle of Filth, tour nationally with Slayer, visit Europe and South Africa, release two best-selling albums and play the Big Day Out no less than three times.Porn Caddy faded from the scene, along with Luke Ford who took some time away from the music world. In the meantime, Steve Pell regrouped with some former Kilswitch members in funk rock act You Blabbed About Mars, initially as the drummer and later as the bands singer.In 2001, Luke returned to music when he joined cyber-electro metallers Many Machines on Nine, a band that quickly began to forge a name for itself and within two years had developed a reputation that rivaled Fords former band. At the same time, however, the other former Mortality members were meeting with less success. Maloney had been finished with Cryogenic at the end of 2001 and had given up music to spend time with his wife and family. Steve Pell and Craig Figl had been briefly reunited in Sydney nu-metal outfit Three Point Tilt but were also now off the radar.With Many Machines on Nine doing so well, it seemed that Mortality was at last dead and buried. However, during 2004, Luke and Craig discussed the possibility of reforming their old band for old times sake.It has been almost two years since then, and almost ten since the band first disappeared. Now, the sleeping giant that is Mortality has reawakened. With the Structure trio of Maloney, Ford and Pell now joined by one of Australias best known metal guitarists, Andrew Lilley, formerly of Psi.Kore, Infernal Method and Daysend, the band is set to return with a vengeance in 2006.Brian Fischer-Giffen.
