MORTIFICATION leader Steve Rowe has checked in with the following update:

"The world has become a sad place for supporters and collector's of hard copy music.

Imagine spending three years writing and recording an album that in the end costs $20,000 to release and people do not buy it but rather choose to steal it for free from a Christian music download website. Sure, many of you have bought the new Mort Album The Evil Addiction Destroying Machine but not in the quantities of any past albums. Our early albums all sold 50,000 units and the 'Scrolls Of The Megilloth' music clip on YouTube has been watched one quarter of a million times! The DVD re-issue of Live Planetarium that the Scrolls... film clip is on has sold less than 700 hard copies! Sad but true! At this stage it looks as though selling 2000 of the new Mort album is going to be a challenge!

Last month my wife Kate and I were unable to pay some bills for the first time in 20 years of marriage. Kate works full-time and the financial load on her has taken us to the point where I must stop recording Mortification Albums unless something changes. The promised 20th Anniversary album will be released next year by another record company. We just cannot go on losing on these releases and need to start counting the losses and planning new paths for me. I have even had to cancel vital medicines for my waning health. This is a big strain on an already struggling body.

I am not giving up. We are hoping to do some 20th Anniversary shows next year. But I doubt very much that there is a record company out there who would ever advance me $15,000 to record an album of the production quality of TEADM. I think people are missing the very unique and original sound of TEADM - it is a top production on all levels and sounds like nothing I have ever heard before."

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