Post Mortem (band)

Post Mortem
Origin Boston
Genres Death metal
Not to be confused with the German death metal band Postmortem.

Post Mortem was an American death metal[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] band, formed in 1982 in suburban Boston. They formed when the members of the band were still in high school. The band rehearsed every day, often rushing home to write music after classes. John McCarthy penned the personal songs while drummer Rick McIver wrote the gore lyrics. John Alexander helped write most of the songs. “Our whole concept was that we honestly didn’t give a fuck. That’s why we’re lumped in with punk rock as well as metal,” McCarthy said, adding: “It’s much better to piss off people who think they’re pissed off than to piss off your grandma or your mother or your father.”

Post Mortem’s debut album, Coroner's Office, was released in 1986. Coroner's Office continues to find new listeners and is now as remembered for its unusual styling and flirtation with jazz and punk. The album proved very influential, as it brought musical experimentation common in metal among bands like Cephalic Carnage and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

The band consists of John McCarthy (vocals), John Alexander (guitar), Mark Kelley (bass), and Rick "Ricky Magic" McIver (drums). Contrary to popular belief, Post Mortem were not named after the Slayer song. Post Mortem helped pioneer the underground subgenre of death metal.[9][10][11][12][13]

Many metal bands have acknowledged the influence of Post Mortem, like Cianide,[14] Grief (who covered the entire Coroner's Office album), Disharmonic Orchestra, who covered "(It's Just) A Thought",[15] and Anal Cunt (who covered Post Mortem's "1066").

Contents

Members

Founding members

Current members

Noteworthy Past Members

Discography

References

  1. ^ USA Today: "band that emerged from Belmont High School in the mid-1980s and helped pioneer the underground subgenre of death metal"
  2. ^ about.com: "Post Mortem offered my first real exposure ever to death metal, arriving before standards like Death’s Scream Bloody Gore in 1987 and Autopsy’s Severed Survival in 1989"
  3. ^ Boston Globe: "helped pioneer the underground subgenre of death metal"
  4. ^ Boston Herald: "Boston isn’t known as a death-metal hotbed, but if the city could claim one pioneer band in the genre, it was Post Mortem"
  5. ^ teethofthedivine: "never received credit for being years ahead of most bands now regarded as the godfathers of death metal"
  6. ^ MetalMark: "showed some ideas of early death metal so in some respects they were ahead of their time"
  7. ^ Blabbermouth: "POST MORTEM's early releases pre-date virtually any of the major death metal albums"
  8. ^ AudioTavern:"They were also the first death metal band"
  9. ^ USA Today
  10. ^ weeklydig: "one of Boston’s Metal Pioneers"
  11. ^ Boston Globe: "helped pioneer the underground subgenre of death metal"
  12. ^ Boston Herald: "if the city could claim one pioneer band in the genre, it was Post Mortem"
  13. ^ New Renaissance Records: "Pioneers of death metal"
  14. ^ Interview with Mike from Cianide: "Coroner's Office is a fuckin' classic!"
  15. ^ Disharmonic Orchestra, Mind Seduction, on Metal Archives

External links