Mortification (band)

Mortification are an Australian Christian death metal band formed in 1987 as a heavy metal group, Lightforce, by bassist/singer Steve Rowe. By 1990, in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin, they renamed to Mortification with the line-up of Rowe, guitarist Michael Carlisle, and drummer Jayson Sherlock. Mortification have released fourteen studio albums, three compilation albums, three extended plays, six live discs, one demo album, one box set, and several videos on major record labels such as Nuclear Blast. As one of the earliest internationally successful Australian Christian death metal bands, they inspired later similar groups. During the early 1990s, Mortification played death and thrash metal. After Sherlock's departure, Mortification experimented with groove metal, hardcore punk and power metal. They achieved commercial success with Blood World in 1994, and received critical acclaim for 1996's EnVision EvAngelene. Despite the lack of subsequent commercial success or mainstream critical recognition, "the band, in spite of their extreme sound, are some kind of superstars in the 'White Metal' scene", and have been described as "a legend in the death metal scene." In late 1996, Rowe was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia and took 18 months to recover. Mortification issued their tenth album, Triumph of Mercy, in August 1998, and accompanied it with a North American tour. By August 1999, the band had sold a quarter of a million albums across Europe and the US. They returned to their death/thrash roots for the 2004 album Brain Cleaner. In 2026, they announced a Scrolls of the Megilloth 35th anniversary tour in Latin America, with the band playing 10 dates in February of 2027. The announced line-up consisted of drummer Sherlock, guitarists Bowen and Jelinic, and singer/bassist Luke Renno of Crimson Thorn. Sherlock announced that, due to health reasons, he was dropping out of the tour.