Caryn Havlik (drums) and Lesley Wolf (bass/vox) met in 2005 while playing in New York’s all-female Slayer cover band Slaywhore. Elizabeth Cline (guitar) and Havlik (drums) simultaneously helmed a math-rock project for four years, starting in 2005. After melting faces around the New York City area for six years, and playing the late CBGBs, Slaywhore also disbanded. Finally, Wolf, Havlik, and Cline realized their common musical chemistry and regrouped as Mortals in 2009.
Individual band members’ musical transformations over the years, coupled with the group’s immersion in independent American metal - the Brooklyn metal community in particular - have taken Mortals in new hybrid directions. These days, it’s likely you’ll hear the strong inspiration of High on Fire, Inquisition, and Bolt Thrower, among countless other influences. But from their earliest incarnations, the band’s approach to songwriting has always been unapologetically unorthodox and sonically elaborate, resulting in riff and drum-driven arrangements that explode in some pretty unexpected directions: the rhythms from Balkan music and New Orleans, the guitars from instrumental post-rock, and finally--after much simmering--vocals from the depths of hell.