An Absence of Faith is our fifth album and was recorded at Sound Basement Studios in Sydney with Producer Phil McKellar. We recorded the songs in just 4 days and mixed them in two days and we are very pleased with the way the album turned out. The album has ten songs – Out of the Darkness, Deadman Walking, Tears of Redemption, Before the Bough Breaks, Rise or Fall, My Nightmare, Say your Prayers, Lost Within, Eye in the Sky, & Broken Promises.

Mortal Sin waited a long time to record this album because we were trying to raise the funds, so we spent a lot of time in the rehearsal studio preparing the songs for pre-production. We like to analyse everything to make sure we are completely happy with our work. While this was frustrating to wait such a long time it gave us an opportunity to have the songs perfectly ready for the time when we could get into a recording studio. Once we were able to raise the funds, we set a date for the studio and went in fully prepared. This is why it only took us four days to record.

Mortal Sin composes songs mostly in the rehearsal studio. Mick, Nathan or Andy will bring in a riff for everyone to listen to. Usually we will see how the riff works with everyone and then either develop it or change it to suit any other ideas. Sometimes it’s easy to join one or two riffs if they are compatible. Once we have some basic riffs, as lyric writer, I see if I can add some imput, otherwise we will keep the riffs and just keep developing them until we have a complete song or at least the basics of a song. Then Hopefully I can add some lyrics. Sometimes we might change riffs or structures around to suit any ideas I might add. After a while we keep working on these ideas until we have a complete song – then we keep playing the song until we have all learnt the riffs, the structures and then we listen to the completed song for a couple of weeks. Usually in this time we make small or large changes depending on whether we are completely happy with the song or not. A song can take months to develop or it can come together very quickly.

Mostly my inspiration for lyrics comes with every day lives of people – just things in the newspaper or on the television or news. A Brief description of the lyrics for each song is Out of the Darkness – about people with depression, Deadman Walking – about Biological warfare, Tears of Redemption – (Lebanon Part Two) 20 years after the first war of Lebanon I carry on the story through the eyes of a 24 year old Lebanese boy who renounces his religion because he believes if there is a god then why did his family of 15 get killed in the first war and leave him an orphan, Before the Bough Breaks – about relationship problems between man and woman!, Rise or Fall – about choices we make in life, My Nightmare – about guilt and self conscience, Say your Prayers – about child abuse, Lost Within – about a man who does not realise he is dead, Eye in the Sky – about satellites in the sky and CCTV cameras everywhere, & Broken Promises – about George Bush and his war on oil.

Obviously we now have different members, so the contributions are different – with Nathan and Luke joining the band we gained two members who came from an entirely different background – Luke’s style is more of a black metal drummer with thrash influences and Nathan was a very big Slayer fan but who also likes stuff like Alice in Chains. Having these two help write some of the later songs (Tears of Redemption and Say your Prayers) you can hear the difference – many blast beats and a more modern sound. There is almost twenty years between face of Despair and An Absence of Faith, so of course there will be differences. Many people have said that we now have a modern sound with an old school feel.

From a personal point of view, Tears of Redemption is my favourite track, simply because it was an incredible challenge to take a song from our debut album – Lebanon – and write a second part to the song without taking away from the original. The story is very powerful and the music is brilliant. We did a great job with the song and we are all very proud of it.

It depends on how long a set we get. When we play in Australia we usually play about five songs from the new album. When we play in Europe with Overkill we only get 35 minute set, so unfortunately we can only include two new songs, but we will rotate our set and play different songs each night.

My favourite bands are Dream Theater, Metallica, Yes, Queen and Journey. My favourite albums are Metallica – Master of Puppets, Dream Theater – Scenes from a Memory, Awake and Octavarium; Testament – Practice what you Preach, Death Angel – Act III, Anthrax – Among the Living, Bathory – Hammerheart, Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II, Jimi Hendrix – Are you Experienced, Audioslave – Audioslave, Fates Warning – Perfect Symmetry.

We go through the songs in our head, nothing too special, just warm-ups and stretches.

Yes in March with Overkill, we will tour Czech republic, Poland, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, and Norway.

In 1989 we toured with Metallica in Australia for their …And Justice for All… tour and we had an awesome time. At that time there were not too many metal bands touring Australia, so the anticipation for this tour was very high. When we played in our home town Sydney we were sitting on the edge of the stage when suddenly the doors were open to the public. In less than one minute 8,500 people were running towards the stage to get the best spot in the middle. It was a truly amazing sight! After the tour we had the after tour party with Metallica and they were really cool and we drank lots of Jagermeister with them. I somehow managed to get very drunk and into lots of trouble with my wife and spent the night sleeping in the driveway of my home in the rain.

We will spend some time touring and promoting our new album and then begin writing some new material. We have not set a time frame as we like to take our time when writing new songs, but we’ll see what happens.

Fucking rock on dudes!! Eat lots of metal chocolate! Hopefully we can see you on tour soon!