When looking at the frequency with which this German septet has album releases (debut album “2 Hours To Doom” in 1997, followed by a split 7"EP with The Swarm, & a track on the 1999 compilation “The Seed Of The Next Season" - all on the Per Koro label – and ”10,000 Bad Guys Dead" on Chrome Saint Magnum in 2001 –   the latter with the very weird line-up of 3 singers Björn & Benny Schmidt, and Daniel Grabowski,guitarist Sven Nienaber, the 2 bassists Sven Seelkopf & Matthias Trenne, and finally drummer Andre Wendelken) you could call them a lazy bunch...and they would agree full heartedly!

Little known to most of us, is that they have been without a label since '02, but have had an additional release of a kind since, a rare occasion when the arts of music and comics come together to create something new: a comic book with a soundtrack (or looked at from the other side of things, a CD with a very big booklet)! Both Mörser and comic artist Sascha Thau being well-known in their respective scenes, “Scum" became an instant Underground hit when it was released in 2002.

3 years on, the band (with a somewhat changed line-up, with only Benny Schmidt and Grabowski remaining as vocalists, plus the addition of one Rademacher as guitarist) again recorded music to be included in a comic called ”Pure" (by the same comic artist). Unfortunately (or possibly luckily for us, because at least now we are getting a full-length album's worth of ”new" material) that wasn't meant to be. And this is where the Dutch Garden Of Exile stepped in to save the day.

”Pure Scum" brings all 5 tracks from the sold-out ”Scum", in re-mastered version, together with the 5 new songs, making for just over 37 minutes' worth of sheer Metallic Hardcore frenzy (of the kind that spawned in rather selected amounts from Germany at the end of the '90s, beginning of the new millennium, main delivering label for which was Per Koro. Other bands in the genre were, amongst others, Carol and Systral - which happens to be part of the source from which members for Mörser were recruited).

But that is not where the beauty of this new Mörser release stops, for the CD also has a multi-media part. On it, you'll find more info on Der Kosmopolit (aka Sascha Thau), 3 short stories (titled “Man With A Suitcase” & “Taken”, plus “Scum”), a preview of the comic “Pure”, and some more stuff which I didn't dare open due to the fact that my lap-top was warning me not to. All in all, a very nice package, indeed, and one worthy of the highest rating & nomination into that “Best Albums Of 2006” list of mine!

97/100

Tony.