Perfectly Defect album cover.

‘Perfectly Defect’ is, to my count, the eleventh release from the very strange Håvard Ellefsen. Better know to us mortals as Mortiis.

Following up from ‘The Grudge’ and its remix brother ‘Some Kind of Heroin’ it continues to improve the fine form that this strange troll has mastered in the 21st century.

This album has the added bonus that it was released completely free of charge, though donating is an option and if you enjoy it as much as I do, please send the band some cash on PayPal to ensure that they keep getting to make music. See the link below for information on donating and downloading.

Download it and hopefully send some money here

So on to the music itself. This is 21st Century Gothic at its best. Hard, heavy guitars and Electronica alongside beautiful floating soundscapes, capped off with intelligent and thoughtful lyrics. Music has been missing this dark partner for a while. Songs contained here could just as easily be found on albums by Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails or The Prodigy without sounding out-of-place. The mostly instrumental ‘Thieving Bastards’ is actually strongly reminiscent of ‘Breathe’ by The Prodigy with a darker and more sinister edge.

Gothic as a genre has pretty much been done a great disservice for years. The Sisters Of Mercy, The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim apparently all have had their best days behind them. The Emo phenomenon has gone a long way to remove any credibility the genre ever had and the only large selling musician that has come close to embracing the term is the ever-embarrassing Marilyn Manson. Hopefully, thoughtful and exciting music like the tunes found on this release will go a long way to breathe new life into the bloated corpse of Goth Rock.

This short release should appeal to many different types of music fans however not just the Goths and Metal crowds that have supported this band previously, anybody interested in Electronica and Big Beat should find something juicy to wrap their chops around and one good remix and I think it could end up in the Pop Charts too (à la Tori Amos).

All in all, I found I really dig this album. I am happy to order a physical copy and hand over my hard-earned cash for it. But, do yourself a favour and download it, as mentioned its free and what have you got to lose other than the prejudices that follow “weird” bands like this around.

8.25/10