Mortified "Solitaire" (NoorteMuusa 1994)

Mart Kalvet - Vocals (Taak, Nitrous, Dawn Of Gehenna, Whispering Forest, Ecthalion, Herald) Kaido Tiits - Guitar (Taak, Predatory War, Dawn Of Gehenna ) Rene 'Till' Piirkop - Guitar (Pedigree, Misdeed, SABO) Raimo Jussila - Bass (No-Big-Silence) Henry 'Suss' Hinno - Drums (Rattler, Obscured, Skydancer, Must Missa, Manatark, Tanka, RockCrime) Tarvo Valm - Keyboards (Shower, Damage, Forgotten Sunrise, Misery, Human Ground, Tanel Padar & The Sun, Soul Thrower, Me, Myself & I) Estonia's premiere melodic death metal act Mortified first rehearsed on September 18, 1992 and played live first on November 27, 1992 (How do I remember? Incidentally, these are correspondingly the death and birth dates of Jimi Hendrix). Thus started a long and bumpy road to... what? Recognition in Estonia, at least. By 1994, a demo and an MC release later, we were rooted among the top performers in Estonian metal scene together with Aggressor, Flytrap, Forgotten Sunrise et al. Relentlessly performing all over Estonia we were still neck-deep in debt. By the year 1995 the constant financial struggle became too much for Kaido and he left to explore his talent deeper in other bands like Dawn Of Gehenna and Predatory War. A replacement was found in Babushkin (Rattler a.o.), and we kept telling ourselves we were still rocking... Nobody knows exactly when the band retired, but it was the mid-nineties decline of metal that first robbed us of audiences and then of interest in continuing the band. Now, looking back at all this from the distance of a decade, I must say that the landscapes of Estonian metal would have been poorer without us, and our own lives might not have turned out as interesting and challenging as they did. We were young and eager, a bunch of good friends with a twisted sense of humour, ready for anything and capitulating to nothing. All of us are active in other bands by now, but we still respect each other. Cheers, mates! Mart Kalvet, October 2004 http://www.estonianmetal.com/bands.ph...