Band Members:
Thomas Metzler – Guitar
Twain Cooper – Vocals
Alex Astivia – Drums
Patrik Lercher – Bass
Biography
Mortician was founded in 1983 by five young metal fans in the town of Satteins, Austria. After several months of powerful practices, the band hit the stage for their first concert on the 31st of March in 1984, offering an amazing show for 300 metal maniacs. From then on, the band played several concerts across its local area, mainly at metal/rock clubs and biker weekend parties.
In the spring of 1986, the band recorded its first demo “Street Warrior,” which received amazing feedback and motivated the band to go into the studio once again in the summer of ’87 to produce the nowadays highly appreciated EP “NO WAR,” which has been recognized as a cult item among the specialized press and heavy metal fans.
After a lot of local success and the great reaction for the “No War” EP, Mortician got selected as one of the best ten metal bands in Austria and was invited to play together with Sepultura and Sodom in Vienna in 1989. Also, in 1989, the band recorded its next demo tape entitled “Break The Rules” and kept on with the hard promotional work, playing concerts around Austria. In 1990, for various personal reasons, the band split up, and each of its members took different paths.
After 19 years, in 2009, the founding members of Mortician, Thomas Metzler (guitar), and Patrik Lercher (bass), decided to reunite the band. As the original singer and drummer were not available anymore, they decided to hire Daniel Khan for the vocals and Antee for the drums. Shortly after the reformation, the band signed a record deal with Pure Steel Records, and in the autumn of 2009, Mortician’s entire material from the ’80s was re-released under the title “No War and More.”
During 2010, Mortician was booked for the festivals “Up The Hammers” in Athens and “Keep It True” in Germany, which gave the band the next kick and positioned it again in the sight of the metal fans from Europe.
In November 2011, the band went into the studio once again to record its first LP called “Mortician” under Pure Underground Records label, which achieved a great response worldwide and was highly acclaimed by the press.
In November 2014, the album “Shout for Heavy Metal” was released, becoming a record of great demand throughout the entire world and receiving great reviews from the media. Also, together with the release of the album, another update to Mortician’s lineup was announced; directly from Mexico, the drummer Alex Astivia joined the band.
Through this new Mortician era, the band shared the stage with a lot of great bands like Black Label Society, Sepultura, Sodom, Tygers of Pan Tang, Demon, Raven, Biohazard, Lordi, Jag Panzer, and supported the European tour of Lillian Axe. As well, it performed at the “Pounding Metal Festival” in Madrid, the “Metal Headz Open Air” in Germany, the “After Dark Fair” in the Czech Republic, the “Metal Rites Festival” in Greece, etc.
In 2019, the German singer Twain Cooper joined the band with whom the album “Titans” was released in 2020, highly acclaimed by critics and the audience.
In 2023, Mortician celebrated its 40 Years Anniversary. To commemorate this special occasion, the band entered the studio once again. In June 2023, at the Hard N Heavy Festival in Austria, the band officially released this special album entitled “40 Years of Metal,” which became an immediate success.