Unofficial Page of the band MORTIFER, in Russian and English, with info on X-FACTOR

A solo project of a Russian metaller, Sergei Novikov, whose career started in a thrash band Mortifer in late 1980s. Mortifer began with songs in Russian, but soon enough made a swtich into English, debuting in 1992 with "Euthanasia." Then the problems of the Russian economy put the band on respirator until 1999, when they recorded "If Tomorrow Comes" (2000). Around the same time Novikov collected all of Mortifer's early songs in Russian, added a fistful of new ones, recorded them, and released under the title of "X-Factor."

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X-FACTOR (2001)

RATING: ****1/2

BEST SONGS: "Careerist," "Rye Eely Ad (Heaven Or Hell)," "Belaya Smert (White Death)"

This collection of songs mostly consists of Mortifer's early material which never saw the light of day due to the change in their direction. One does not have to look far to establish Sergei Novikov's primary source of inspiration: Aria! And he is very open about it too: the album ends with an excellent and very true-to-the-original cover of "Rise – Overcome Your Fear," from Aria's classic album, Which Side Are You On?, which also appeared on the Aria tribute. But the original songs fit the riff-oriented, Accept / Ozzy, side of early Aria albums very well. Upper-mid-tempo rockers with catchy choruses almost always work very nicely. Not very original, but tremendously driving, they provide guaranteed headbanging. There is also one very unique feature about this album: X-Factor consists of one man only. Besides singing, Novikov plays EVERY SINGLE INSTRUMENT: guitars, bass, synths, and drum machine programming (which, btw, doesn't sound so bad), and he is adequate on all of them. I guess that puts "solo" into "solo project"! The sound is strong, and there is nothing that would make you think this is not a real band. The standouts include: opening mid-tempo "Careerist," faster "V Storonu Sveta (Towards The Light)," "Ty Za Vse V Otvete (You Answer For Everything)," a blazing duo of "Heaven Or Hell" and "White Death," and the Aria cover. There are also two slower, more melancholic and introspective numbers: "Veter (Wind)" and "The Monologue." One negative comment would be that the rockers all sound somewhat similar, not deviating too far from the classical, time-tested approach. But they are so well executed, and the choruses are just so damn catchy, that this problem is easily overlooked. I hope to hear more from this project. Btw, it was just remastered and re-released in 2005.